Now closed.
To start off the 2015 git-annex user survey, let's see how many users
type git annex commands at the command line, and how many use the
assistant (and its webapp).
I use mostly the git-annex assistant (20%)
I use mostly git-annex at the command line (66%)
I use both equally often (5%)
I do not yet use git-annex (7%)
Total votes: 265
The assistant can use XMPP to share your repository with friends, or to other devices. However, this has never worked very reliably, and is not as secure as other methods. Using GitLab's free repositories, or a server of your own with git-annex on it, is a better choice for most of us these days. So, we'd like to remove XMPP support..
The question is, if you use the assistant, do you rely on it supporting XMPP?
I use the assistant, with XMPP (5%)
I use the assistant, but without XMPP (48%)
I don't use the assistant, and don't even need to click on this vote button because this question doesn't concern me (45%)
Total votes: 188
I'm curious to see how popular direct mode is versus indirect mode.
I use mostly indirect mode (35%)
I use mostly direct mode (21%)
I use direct and indirect mode equally (11%)
I use indirect mode when possible, but am forced to use direct mode on some platforms (25%)
I use whatever is the default (6%)
I don't know (0%)
Total votes: 195
Pick the operating system which you use git-annex on the most.
Linux (74%)
OSX (14%)
Android (4%)
other Unix (0%)
Windows (4%)
FreeBSD (2%)
Cross platform: I use functionality where Win=Linux/OSX (2%)
Total votes: 200
How do you get git-annex installed?
From a prebuilt version on this website (28%)
I build from source (4%)
I install the version provided by my OS distributor (55%)
I don't know; it was installed for me (0%)
Homebrew (6%)
Package myself (PPA on launchpad.net) (0%)
Nix (2%)
I use the apk from this site on Android, the deb from Debian on Debian (1%)
Total votes: 190
If you install it using different methods at different times, pick the method you use most frequently.
git-annex runs on many operating systems: Linux, OS X, BSDs, Android, and Windows. However, some ports are further along than others.
If there's a device on which you cannot use git-annex today, because the port to an OS is missing or incomplete, please pick it. Please don't vote for an OS where you already successfully use git-annex.
I'm good -- git-annex runs on my OSes of choice! (41%)
Windows (11%)
Android (7%)
Apple iOS (5%)
A native, automagic, stupid-user-compatible Android version would be good (32%)
Nokia N9 Harmattan (0%)
SailfishOS (1%)
windows phone! (0%)
Nokia N900 Maemo 5 (0%)
Total votes: 190
How many git-annex repositories do you have? If you have a bunch of clones of the same repository on different devices, count them all up.
0 (1%)
1 (0%)
2-5 (32%)
6-10 (27%)
11-20 (23%)
21-30 (6%)
31-40 (2%)
41-50 (1%)
51-60 (1%)
61-70 (1%)
71-80 (0%)
81-90 (0%)
91-100 (0%)
100+ (2%)
Total votes: 177
How much data do you have stored in git-annex?
The way to get this value is to run git annex info (or git annex status
if you have a version older than 5), and look for the line
that says "size of annexed files in working tree" or "known annex size".
If you've got multiple repositories that each contain different files (not git clones), you can run it in each and add them up.
<1 GB (4%)
1+ GB (4%)
10+ GB (15%)
100+ GB (38%)
1+ TB (17%)
2+ TB (7%)
4+ TB (5%)
8+ TB (3%)
16+ TB (2%)
32+ TB (0%)
64+ TB (0%)
128+ TB (0%)
256+ TB (0%)
rather not say (0%)
I have too much data for git-annex to handle 
(0%)
Total votes: 176
What kind of data do you mostly use git-annex to store?
personal data (78%)
business data (6%)
scientific data (4%)
game development assets (0%)
rather not say (0%)
movies stored in cloud to free up local space (5%)
archiving digitized printed books and manuscripts (1%)
scientific research papers (1%)
personal and business data equally (2%)
anything worth preserving and not expected to change (0%)
Total votes: 179
Do you use git-annex by yourself, or as part of a group of people who share a repository? (If you have multiple repositories, pick the one with the largest group.)
by myself (58%)
by myself so far but I hope to get others using my repository (27%)
1 other person (6%)
2 others (1%)
3-5 others (5%)
6-10 others (0%)
11-20 others (1%)
21-30 others (0%)
github.com/ocharles/papers presumably has many readers, though only one commiter (0%)
Total votes: 174
How would you characterize your general git knowledge? (Not your git-annex knowledge!)
novice (3%)
casual, needs advice (10%)
everyday use (23%)
can offer advice (36%)
know it very well (24%)
wrote some of it (1%)
Total votes: 182
Overall, how happy are you with git annex?
unhappy (0%)
not so happy (8%)
happy (35%)
very happy (38%)
completely ecstatic (1%)
one of my favorite applications of all time (16%)
Total votes: 176
If a problem is preventing you from using git-annex, or the git-annex assistant, please indicate it here.
If you're currently using git-annex, you can instead answer on behalf of less technically adept friends or family, and identify a problem blocking them from using the git-annex assistant.
Total votes: 153
(Note that missing ports covers ports to IOS etc, so don't add them here.)
git-annex is now 5 years old, and has a good number of users. What general area do you think development should focus on now?
just general maintenance, keep it working and fix bugs (7%)
make it easier for nontechnical users (29%)
make it more suitable for collaboration inside larger groups/organizations (ie, game developers, scientists, archivists) (16%)
port it to more platforms (2%)
Make a GUI for managing single files and directories. I.e. a way for people to choose what files should be downloaded via the web app (12%)
Still needs more polish -- install and config complicated and slightly flaky (6%)
performance (18%)
make it safer -- it routinely does the wrong thing in merging (resurrecting deleted files and deleting newly added files) (4%)
I'd really like the compilation setup to be a lot easier, maybe with some kind of ./configure that could identify missing software. Haskell is a pretty unknown world to me, but I'd love to get it to compile properly so I could betatest or even provide some patches. (0%)
***Parallel Transfers over SSH*** (0%)
Total votes: 164
Looking at git-annex's roadmap, which item seems most important to you?
caching (database for metadata views, direct mode mappings) (9%)
gpg key management in assistant (5%)
deltas (faster syncing of modified versions of files) (38%)
telehash or similar (15%)
requests routing (5%)
v6 repo format (6%)
deferred update mode (0%)
use smudge and clean filters like Git LFS (4%)
preserve file modification timestamps in direct mode with assistant (3%)
integration with GUI file managers like Dolphin (sorry! I have very weak CLI skills and little time to improve them) (8%)
AWS lifecycle support (0%)
The ability to mark connections as metered, and only sync metadata (0%)
Total votes: 124
Thanks for your feedback, and enjoy git-annex.