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.