[All] FR survey and locations

[Thomas Otterbein]

Dear all,

questions about buying a FR now or later, waiting for this or that software 
and using this or that distribution arrive on a regular basis on this list. I 
read them all although I'm usually quite unhappy with the answers that happen 
to arrive on such a mailing. IMHO they represent -naturally- rather the 
authors personal liking of a certain distro than a neutral perspective on the 
most common issues (buzz, echo, battery, etc.). I understand that it depends a 
lot on the concrete device (revision) one uses and the circumstances 
(location, provider, gsm band, etc.) it's used in and -of course- on the 
personal expectations.

So here's my approach to get the most urgent questions answered by a large 
group of users while allowing to take the decession on a most neutral base of 
data.
I created a survey with the most important questions - at least to me but I'm 
happy to "optimize" it to make it usefull for a larger group of people. The 
questions are: What revisions of the FR are are out there and in use? What 
distro is used at the most? How many are (still) suffering from buzz/echo? Is 
there any indication that these problems are located or more frequent in 
certain corners of the world?

The survey is a simple Google-Form. You can see the any entered records as a 
sheet here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p2ZQdcRSVg9XfYLwBVsZicg

To take part in the survey click here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p2ZQdcRSVg9XfYLwBVsZicg

I also created a Google-Map where everyone can enter the location of his or 
her FR, so people, who would like to see and/or touch it before buying their 
own, could find the closest FR-owner 
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=115352610340426907999.000461ec26b35ac3fad63&z=7

The Google-Form offers a kind of summary too, which may show some usefull 
statistics if enough FR-owners take part in the survey. However it cannot, for 
whatever reason, be made public. If someone is interessted I'll publish the 
summary somewhere else then.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Regards
  thomas