NetworkManager Survey Results
On March 11, the NetworkManager team prepared a survey to better understand how
NetworkManager is used and what are its users' needs.
1
We received 1318 responses: thanks to anyone who took the time to fill in the survey!
There were a lot of good advice and comments about what could be improved and what features
should be added. While we found that many were already tackled in the recent NetworkManager
1.2 release
2
, we'll take into account each contribution for the planning and development of the
forthcoming NetworkManager versions.
Here some of the most frequent complaints we collected.
•
Wi-Fi: the list of available networks is not up-to-date when the client is mobile, when a new
Wireless Hotspot has been just activated or when resuming after standby
In NetworkManager 1.2 Wi-Fi scanning has been improved in order to solve or at least
greatly mitigate those issues
3
•
Support to multiple concurrent VPN connections
Multiple concurrent VPN connections has been introduced in NetworkManager 1.2!
2
•
Support to VPN profile import/export
NetworkManager1.2 support import and export of the VPN connection settings for most
types of VPNs in their native format
2
•
Easier VPN setup
•
nmcli is hard to use
In NetworkManager1.2 nmcli has been improved in order to have a more user-friendly cli
4
•
More information from nmcli output on error
•
nmcli is limited in the setup of complex network scenarios
“Need a bridge over VLANs or bond bridges together? No problem anymore” with
NetworkManager 1.2
4
thanks to the introduction of a more flexible interface stacking
5
•
better nmcli documentation / tutorial and more advertising of its features
Finally, we want to share a brief summary of the main outcomes of the Survey. Once again, thanks
to each one helped us to understand how improve our beloved NetworkManager.
Survey Result Summary
NetworkManager Controls
•
GUI: as expected, is the most used and appreciated way of controlling NetworkManager,
with GNOME as the preferred desktop environment [Pic.1, Pic.4]
•
nmcli: slightly more than 50% used it and 41% of them are not happy with it [Pic.2]
•
nmtui: almost unknown (44%) but highly appreciated among adopters (75%) [Pic.3]
It's very nice
It does its job
It's unpleasant to use
I don't use it
I didn't know it exists
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Pic. 1: GNOME
It's very nice
It does its job
It's unpleasant to use
I don't use it
I didn't know it exists
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Pic. 2: nmcli
It's very nice
It does its job
It's unpleasant to use
I don't use it
I didn't know it exists
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Pic. 3: nmtui
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
nm-applet
plasma-nm
nmcli
nmtui
file
systemd
netctl
gnome
kde
i3
xfce
cinnamon
Pic. 4: How do you control your networking?
NetworkManager most used functionalities
The most important and used functionality are by far WiFi and VPN [Pic.8]
•
WiFi: almost everyone uses NetworkManager to connect to WiFi (98%) and is quite happy
with it (97%) [Pic.5]
•
VPN: 75% of users need to configure VPNs and 73% of them are quite happy with it [Pic.6]
•
Provide Connectivity: only 44% of users use it and 58% of them are pleased with it
•
Advanced (bond / bridge / team): less than 1/3 of users needs this and 45% of them are fine
with it [Pic.7]
It was intuitive
It worked fine
It didn't work well for me
I have never done that
I didn't know it's possible
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Pic. 5: Connect to a Wi-Fi
It was intuitive
It worked fine
It didn't work well for me
I have never done that
I didn't know it's possible
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Pic. 6: Use a VPN
It was intuitive
It worked fine
It didn't work well for me
I have never done that
I didn't know it's possible
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Pic. 7: Advanced
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
WiFi
VPN
CLI
Bridging
DHCP
DNS
Static IP
VLAN
Pic. 8: What functionality is important to you?
nmcli
nmcli usage is not much widespread: just ~40% of users use it for trivial tasks (like checking and
enabling a connection) [Pic.9]. Their number falls down to 23% for basic tasks, like creating a new
connection [Pic.11].
A common complaint is that nmcli is hard to use [Pic.13]. This is in partially evident also
comparing the percentage of successful users able to perform certain NetworkManager operations
when using nmcli instead of the GUI tools:
•
Connect to a WiFi: 70% of nmcli users (GUI 97%) [Pic.9]
•
Use a VPN: 59% of nmcli users (GUI 73%) [Pic.10]
•
Provide others with connectivity: 49% (GUI 58%)
•
Advanced (bridge/bond/team): 45% (GUI 45%)
Available documentation looks fine for 70%-75% of the nmcli users [Pic.12].
It was intuitive
It worked fine
It didn't work well for me
I have never done that
I didn't know it's possible
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Pic. 9: Connect to a Wi-Fi
It was intuitive
It worked fine
It didn't work well for me
I have never done that
I didn't know it's possible
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Pic. 10: Use a VPN
Yes
No
I don't even know what does it do
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Pic. 11: nmcli c add
It's excellent
I found what I needed
It's hard to follow
I didn't use it
I didin't know it exists
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
Pic. 12: Which resources are helpful to you when using nmcli? nmcli(1) manual page
140
52
162
42
181
48
36
like / use it
don't like
don't use
never heard
hard to use
poor docs / advertisement
Is limited
Pic. 13: What are your feelings about nmcli? (60% did not replied)
General information
•
The configuration model of NetworkManager is fine for more than an half of the users
[Pic.14]
•
69% of the users are ready to submit a bug if needed [Pic.15]
It's alright
I found it confusing
I didn't need to understand it
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Pic. 14: Network Manager configuration model is easy to understand
When I encounter a bug
When I'm missing a feature
Both
Never
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Pic. 15: I'm likely to file a Network Manager bug