Package Freshness in Linux Distributions.

Survey conducted on the package freshness in Linux distributions. A preprint of the paper can be found here. The survey form can be found here. An anonymised version of the responses is included, in csv format: - The first 3 columns correspond to the answers to the first question, that is to say the ranking of the distributions used by respondents. - The "perception" columns correspond to the answers to the second question: "according to you, how long does it take for the latest upstream version to be made available in the official repositories of that distribution?" Packages were divided into 6 categories: OSS: open-source end-user software, such as Firefox, LibreOffice or GIMP; PS: proprietary end-user software, such as Adobe Reader, Spotify or Skype; DT: development tools, such as git, Emacs or Eclipse; STL: system tools and libraries, such as openSSL; PLL: programming language libraries, such as Numpy, Lodash or Boost; PLR: programming language runtimes such as Python, node.js or Java. - The "importance" columns correspond to the answers to the third question: "how important is it for you to stay up to date with upstream packages of the following types?" - The "reasons" columns correspond to the answers to the fourth question: "what are your main reasons for updating packages?" - The "mechanisms" columns correspond to the answers to the fifth question: "which mechanism do you use to install specific versions of packages?" The possible mechanisms are: Official package manager the distribution and its official repository (off), Official package manager of the distribution with community repositories (com), Third-party package managers (3rd) Installing manually from binaries (bin) Installing manually from source files (sources