Dear Linux users,

we are a team of researchers from the GSD Lab of the University of Waterloo (ON, Canada). We do research on configuration methods and algorithms and are conducting a study on the problems faced by users during the configuration of the Linux kernel. We would greatly appreciate it if you could answer this questionnaire: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...ZlFQTmdpQVE6MA
It should not take you more than 15 minutes to complete.

Thank you very much for your contribution.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <GENERAL> as it has no technical question, and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

And as with any such thread: while the boys request fairly
little information I'd like to warn anyone about internet
privacy and general concerns regarding e-mail harvesting.



Cheers,
Tink

Thank for moving my post to the right place. I apologize for the trouble caused.

I also understand your concern regarding email harvesting. I guarantee that email addresses will only be used for follow-up questions and are not shared with anyone outside our research lab.

Of course we have no way to know that you represent anyone's research lab. Why is this survey being hosted on Google Docs and not the web site of your research institution?

The survey is hosted on Google Docs because it is both convenient and lightweight. Unfortunately, my status does allow me to post the URL to our scientific credentials. If you want to know more about our recent activities and affiliations, please Google "GSD Lab Waterloo", select Lab Members, and then look for Yingfei Xiong and Arnaud Hubaux.

"Peter and Paul I know of, but who are you?"

Any research institution has a web site and therefore has the ability to post information and requests onto it, such that people who are not members of said institution cannot do so.

Anyone can impersonate anyone. Your identity cannot be proved.

Let us assume for the sake of argument that you are, in fact, who you say you are. By not doing so in a manner that can be independently verified, you have introduced a bias into your survey. Therefore, I believe that you have no choice but to arrange with the webmasters of your institution to post the information directly onto the institution's site. You cannot expect to get objective results, let alone from a well-seasoned group of Linux administrators who deal with "spoof" issues all the time, without first establishing a credible identity. And, you do not have a usable scientific paper without it. It will never pass peer-review anywhere.

The GSD Waterloo site is currently down. As soon as it's back up, I will email them.

And when I do, I'm going to point out to them that spam is not an ethical research method.

If you are who you claim to be, then this makes no sense; both students have academic homepages.

EDIT: I got a reply. I'm won't post private email here, but it does satisfy me that the survey is authentic.

By status, I mean that the forum does not allow me to include other URLs given my current number of posts.

Thank you for confirming the authenticity of our study.