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[[!meta title="OpenPGP and Pidgin survey"]]
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[[!toc levels=3]]
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- GitLab issue: [[!tails_ticket 17821]]
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- Advertised on [[Home]] from 2020-07-18 to 2020-08-13
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- 924 full responses, 851 valid responses
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- Conversion rate 2.2%
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Research questions and results
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==============================
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## OpenPGP support outside of Thunderbird ([[!tails_ticket 8310]], [[!tails_ticket 17183]], [[!tails_ticket 17169]])
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This will become an even hotter topic once Enigmail goes away in a few months:
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Thunderbird will maintain its own keyring, independently from GnuPG's ⇒
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Seahorse will stop being useful for anything related to email, so the
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cost/benefit of vaguely supporting it will become even higher.
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- **How popular is OpenPGP inside and outside Thunderbird?**
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OpenPGP is much more popular outside Thunderbird than inside
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Thunderbird:
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- 16% of our users use OpenPGP inside Thunderbird.
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- 49% of our users use OpenPGP outside Thunderbird.
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- **How technical are the people using OpenPGP outside Thunderbird?**
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People using OpenPGP outside Thunderbird are slightly less technical
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that people using OpenPGP inside Thunderbird:
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- Enigmail users use mostly Linux significantly more than non-Enigmail
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users: 62% vs. 50%.
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- Enigmail users use the command line slightly more than non-Enigmail
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users: 62% vs. 56%.
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- The most popular OpenPGP tools are Nautilus (41%), Seahorse (37%),
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and the applet (34%).
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- OpenPGP users use mostly Linux slightly more than our users in
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general: 54% vs. 49%.
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- **Could these people use Thunderbird instead?**
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No.
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- 33% of our users use OpenPGP only outside Thunderbird.
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- 15% of our users use OpenPGP mostly to communicate using a website.
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- 16% of our users use OpenPGP mostly to communicate by email, which
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is the same fraction as the number of Enigmail users.
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- **Who will suffer from the Thunderbird migration because they use
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OpenPGP both inside and outside Thunderbird?**
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Almost all our Enigmail users:
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- 1% of our users only use OpenPGP inside Thunderbird.
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- 16% of our users use OpenPGP both inside and outside Thunderbird.
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- 55% of Enigmail users use OpenPGP mostly to communicate by email.
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- 16% of Enigmail users use OpenPGP mostly to communicate using a
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website.
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## Can we stop including an IRC client by default? (#15816)
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This open question has been the main blocker for replacing Pidgin for years.
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- **What would be the cost of removing the support for IRC by default in Tails?**
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The cost would be way less than breaking Electrum or Seahorse:
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- 8% of our users use IRC in Pidgin.
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- 28% of our users use Electrum.
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- 37% of our users use Seahorse.
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We should provide an alternative, otherwise the noise might be similar
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to dropping 32-bit computers (4%), though the concrete impact is very
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different for people. IRC users are also use Electrum much more than
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our users in general: 51% vs. 28%.
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- **How technical are the people using IRC in Tails?**
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IRC users are much more technical than our users in general:
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- IRC users use mostly Linux significantly more than our users in
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general: 63% vs. 49%.
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- IRC users use OpenPGP a lot more than our users in general: 91% vs.
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50%.
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- IRC users use the command line a lot more than our OpenPGP users in
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general: 91% vs. 58%.
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- **Are people using IRC in Tails to connect to servers that do not block Tor?**
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The most popular IRC servers are:
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- Freenode: 52%
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- Private IRC servers: 43%
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- IRCnet: 34%
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- OFTC: 10%
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- EFnet: 10%
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- Undernet: 7%
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I didn't check how much these servers block Tor.
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- The Tor project has a [list of IRC/chat networks that block or support Tor](https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/BlockingIrc)
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- **How popular is XMPP among our users?**
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A little bit more than Enigmail:
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- 16% of our users use Enigmail.
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- 17% of our users use XMPP in Pidgin.
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- 58% of our Pidgin users use only XMPP.
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- 92% of our Pidgin users use XMPP and IRC.
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## General purpose questions
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- **How technical is our current user base and how easy is it for them to use Tails?**
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Linux users are still the biggest share of our user base, which hasn't
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changed much since 2017.
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| OS | |
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| Windows | 45% |
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| macOS | 7% |
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| Linux | 49% |
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Our current user base finds Tails relatively easy to use.
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Tails scored 5.9 on the *Single Ease Question* among respondents.
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A reference average for this *Single Ease Question* is
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[5.5](https://measuringu.com/seq10/), so we're doing pretty good!
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- **Which applications are used the most in Tails?**
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Fraction of users that reported using a given application (at least sometimes).
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| Application | Total |
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| Tor Browser | 100% |
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| OpenPGP | 50% |
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| Electrum | 28% |
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| Thunderbird | 27% |
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| OnionShare | 27% |
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| Pidgin | 19% |
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- **What are the top requests of our current user base?**
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The top 5 priorities of our users are, in rough order:
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1. The single most frequent comment is to do nothing because Tails is
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great already :)
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2. More persistent settings
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- Security level and NoScript settings in Tor Browser
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- Background
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- Keyboard and language
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3. Messaging applications and voice calls
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Signal was the most mentioned as it also allows voice calls.
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4. Tor is painful for web browsing
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People complain about websites blocking Tor and captchas. I bet
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that's why people ask so much for VPN and use the Unsafe Browser
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whenever Tor Browser doesn't work.
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5. Better upgrades
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Methodology
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===========
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## Prompt
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[[!img openpgp_and_pidgin.png link="no" alt=""]]
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## Questions
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- **Overall, how difficult or easy is it for you to use Tails?** (`*`)
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7-point scale from *Very Difficult* to *Very Easy*
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| OS | Average |
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| All | 5.9 |
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| Windows | 5.8 |
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| macOS | 5.9 |
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| Linux | 6.0 |
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- **If you could change just one thing in Tails, what would it be?**
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Short text:
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I coded the answer and extracted the themes that were mentioned more
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than once.
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- More persistent settings (57)
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16 Persist Tor Browser preferences (security level, NoScript, etc.)
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15 Persist background
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11 Persist keyboard and language
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9 Persist more settings
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4 Persist Tor settings
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2 Easier Persistent Storage
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- Nothing (53)
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53 Nothing
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- Messaging applications and voice calls (38)
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11 Messaging
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10 Voice calls (including Signal for voice calls)
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7 Signal
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7 Omemo
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3 Telegram
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- Tor is painful for web browsing (39)
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19 VPN
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6 Faster Tor
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5 Websites blocking Tor
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4 Download from Unsafe Browser
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3 Sound in Unsafe Browser
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2 Private Unsafe Browser
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- Better upgrades (25)
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- Improvements to Tor Browser (22)
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10 Safest by default (overlaps with persisting preferences)
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4 NoScript in taskbar
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3 Prevent maximizing Tor Browser
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3 Full browser screenshot
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2 Remove letterboxing
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- Network connection (21)
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10 Bridges (easier, more reliable, and by default)
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7 Better circuit view or control
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4 Network connection
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- More cryptocurrencies (18)
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16 Monero
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2 Other cryptos
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- Additional Software (16)
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11 Additional Software (easier, persist config, more choice, etc.)
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5 Package manager
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- Application launching (7)
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3 Favorites (different or custom)
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2 Better Applications menu
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2 Launchers on the desktop
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- More tools
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6 Video editing
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4 Better media player
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3 More tools in general
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3 Video download
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2 Scribus
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2 MAT GUI
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2 GPT-3
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2 BitTorrent
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2 Ability to play CDs
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- Tech trolling
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17 Replace GNOME
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4 Whonix design with VMs
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3 Spoof entire MAC
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2 Replace systemd
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- Hardware support
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5 Wi-Fi support
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3 Booting is hard
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2 Mac hardware
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2 Mobile
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2 Tablet
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- Misc
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13 VeraCrypt (creation of volumes)
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10 Disk install
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9 More documentation
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8 OpenPGP
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7 toram
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5 Dark theme
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4 Freeze
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4 Faster boot
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3 Windows camouflage
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3 Smaller OS
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3 Clock display
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3 Backups
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2 U2F keys
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2 Confirm before shutdown
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2 Disable camera and microphone
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2 Change entry guard
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- **How often, if at all, do you use the following tools in Tails?** (`*`)
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| Application | Sometimes | Most of the time | Total |
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| Tor Browser | 3% | 97% | 100% |
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| OpenPGP | 24% | 26% | 50% |
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| Electrum | 16% | 12% | 28% |
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| Thunderbird | 17% | 10% | 27% |
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| OnionShare | 22% | 5% | 27% |
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| Pidgin | 13% | 6% | 19% |
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- **Other than Tails, which of the following operating systems do you use the most?**
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| Windows | 45% |
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| macOS | 7% |
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| Linux | 49% |
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These results are very similar to the one from the VeraCrypt surveys.
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The question was asked differently so I don't think that we can
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compare them in details.
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### Conditional questions on OpenPGP
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- **How often, if at all, do you use the following tools for OpenPGP in Tails?** (`*`)
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Randomized array
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| | Never | Sometimes | Most of the time | Don't know |
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|--|--|--|--|
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| The `gpg` command line [[!img doc/first_steps/introduction_to_gnome_and_the_tails_desktop/utilities-terminal.png size="22x22" link="no"]] | 20% | 19% | 10% | 2% |
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| *Enigmail* in *Thunderbird* [[!img doc/first_steps/persistence/thunderbird.png size="22x22" link="no"]] | 32% | 10% | 6% | 1% |
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| The OpenPGP applet in the top bar [[!img doc/encryption_and_privacy/gpgapplet/gpgapplet_with_text.png size="22x22" link="no"]] | 14% | 15% | 20% | 1% |
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| The *Passwords and Keys* utility [[!img doc/first_steps/introduction_to_gnome_and_the_tails_desktop/seahorse.png size="22x22" link="no"]] | 12% | 19% | 18% | 1% |
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| The *Files* browser [[!img doc/first_steps/introduction_to_gnome_and_the_tails_desktop/files.png size="22x22" link="no"]] | 8% | 15% | 25% | 1% |
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| The *Archive* manager [[!img doc/first_steps/introduction_to_gnome_and_the_tails_desktop/file-roller.png size="22x22" link="no"]] | 22% | 17% | 8% | 3% |
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- **Which other tool, if any, do you use for OpenPGP in Tails?**
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Short text
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- **Which of the following options describe the best what you use OpenPGP for?**
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Single choice
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* Exchanging encrypted messages or files by email
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* Exchanging encrypted messages or files using a website
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* Exchanging encrypted messages or files using an external device
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* Encrypting text or files for myself
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* Other:
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### Conditional questions on Pidgin
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- **How often, if at all, do you use Pidgin in Tails to connect to XMPP (also called Jabber) servers?**
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*To see if your accounts use XMPP/Jabber, choose Accounts → Manage Accounts in Pidgin.*
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Single choice
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* Never: 8%
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* Sometimes: 57%
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* Most of the time: 35%
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* Don't know: 1%
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* No answer
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- **How often, if at all, do you use Pidgin in Tails to connect to IRC servers?**
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*To see if your accounts use IRC, choose Accounts → Manage Accounts in Pidgin.*
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Single choice
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* Never: 54%
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* Sometimes: 34%
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* Most of the time: 9%
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* Don't know: 4%
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* No answer
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- **How often, if at all, do you use private conversations (also called OTR) in Pidgin in Tails?**
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Single choice
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* Never
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* Sometimes
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* Most of the time
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* Don't know
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* No answer
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- **Which IRC servers, if any, do you connect to using Pidgin in Tails?**
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Randomize multiple choice
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* Private IRC servers: 43%
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* Freenode: 52%
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* IRCnet: 34%
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* Undernet: 7%
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* OFTC: 10%
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* EFnet: 10%
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* Leetnet:
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* Other:
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<!-- https://netsplit.de/networks/top10.php -->
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### Conditional questions on OpenPGP or Pidgin
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- **We might be interested in asking you a few more questions to
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understand better how you use OpenPGP or Pidgin in Tails. If you feel
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like it, you can share your email address with us. We will only use it
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to contact you as part of this research and delete it afterwards.**
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Short text |