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Operating systems expose sophisticated configurability to handle variability in hardware platforms like mobile devices, desktops, and servers. The variability model of an operating system kernel like Linux contains thousands of options guarded by hundreds of complex constraints. To guide users throughout the configuration and ensure the validity of their decisions, specialized tools known as configurators have been developed. Despite these tools, configuration still remains a difficult and challenging process. To better understand the challenges faced by users during configuration, we conducted two surveys, one among Linux users and another among eCos users. This paper presents the results of the surveys along three dimensions: configuration practice; user guidance; and language expressiveness. We hope that these results will help researchers and tool builders focus their efforts to improve tool support for software configuration.
Hubaux et al. (Wed,) studied this question.