The document discusses surveys of PHP developers about adoption of PHP 5.3. It found that most developers wait for binary packages from distributions like Debian/Ubuntu before upgrading, and the majority had not adopted PHP 5.3 yet or found issues when trying it. It suggests providing official PHP binaries could accelerate upgrades, understanding early adopter problems could reduce rejections, and releasing updates like 5.3.1 sooner could drive more upgrades.

1. PHP 5.3 Adoption
Stuart Herbert
stuart@stuartherbert.com
blog.stuartherbert.com/php/

2. Contents
• Approach Used
• Responses Gathered
• What Does It Mean?
• What Can We Do About It?

3. Contents
• Approach Used
• Responses Gathered
• What Does It Mean?
• What Can We Do About It?

4. Contents
• Approach Used
• Responses Gathered
• What Does It Mean?
• What Can We Do About It?

5. Contents
• Approach Used
• Responses Gathered
• What Does It Mean?
• What Can We Do About It?

6. Approach

7. Method
• Questions asked to the online PHP
community - blog and twitter
• Answers gathered via twtpoll
• Before / after questions to gauge intent vs
action
• Analysis to compare intent vs action

8. Method
• Questions asked to the online PHP
community - blog and twitter
• Answers gathered via twtpoll
• Before / after questions to gauge intent vs
action
• Analysis to compare intent vs action

9. Method
• Questions asked to the online PHP
community - blog and twitter
• Answers gathered via twtpoll
• Before / after questions to gauge intent vs
action
• Analysis to compare intent vs action

10. Method
• Questions asked to the online PHP
community - blog and twitter
• Answers gathered via twtpoll
• Before / after questions to gauge intent vs
action
• Analysis to compare intent vs action

11. The Questions
• When will you be moving to PHP 5.3?
• What server o/s will you use PHP 5.3 on?
• Where will you get your PHP 5.3 from?
• Have you adopted PHP 5.3 yet?

12. The Questions
• When will you be moving to PHP 5.3?
• What server o/s will you use PHP 5.3 on?
• Where will you get your PHP 5.3 from?
• Have you adopted PHP 5.3 yet?

13. The Questions
• When will you be moving to PHP 5.3?
• What server o/s will you use PHP 5.3 on?
• Where will you get your PHP 5.3 from?
• Have you adopted PHP 5.3 yet?

14. The Questions
• When will you be moving to PHP 5.3?
• What server o/s will you use PHP 5.3 on?
• Where will you get your PHP 5.3 from?
• Have you adopted PHP 5.3 yet?

15. The Limitations
• Different responders from survey to survey
• No quality control over how responders
understood the questions
• No data on demographics of responders
• No quality control over whether responders
are decision makers or not

16. The Limitations
• Different responders from survey to survey
• No quality control over how responders
understood the questions
• No data on demographics of responders
• No quality control over whether responders
are decision makers or not

17. The Limitations
• Different responders from survey to survey
• No quality control over how responders
understood the questions
• No data on demographics of responders
• No quality control over whether responders
are decision makers or not

18. The Limitations
• Different responders from survey to survey
• No quality control over how responders
understood the questions
• No data on demographics of responders
• No quality control over whether responders
are decision makers or not

19. The Responses

20. The Questions
• When will you be moving to PHP 5.3?
• What server o/s will you use PHP 5.3 on?
• Where will you get your PHP 5.3 from?
• Have you adopted PHP 5.3 yet?

21. When?
Not until $distro ships binary packages 5% 5%
Within 3 months of release 20%
8%
Within 6 months of release
As soon as it comes out 11%
When $hostingCompany supports it 17%
Not until we have to
Not until $customer needs it 17%
PHP 5.3 isn’t very interesting for me 17%
810 votes cast

22. The Questions
• When will you be moving to PHP 5.3?
• What server o/s will you use PHP 5.3 on?
• Where will you get your PHP 5.3 from?
• Have you adopted PHP 5.3 yet?

23. Where?
Debian
Ubuntu Server
Whatever $hostingCompany provides 1%
2%2%
2%2%
RedHat / CentOS / Fedora 3% 24%
5%
Solaris / OpenSolaris
Other Linux 11%
Other
Whatever $customer chooses 18%
OS X Leopard Server 15%
Windows Server 2008 15%
Other Windows
Windows Server 2003
514 votes cast

24. The Questions
• When will you be moving to PHP 5.3?
• What server o/s will you use PHP 5.3 on?
• Where will you get your PHP 5.3 from?
• Have you adopted PHP 5.3 yet?

25. How?
1%
5%4%
Binary packages from $distro
6%
Build from source
Windows binary packages from php.net 43%
Binary packages from Zend 15%
$hostingCompany handles this
Other
I don’t need no stinkin’ PHP 5.3 26%
387 votes cast

26. The Questions
• When will you be moving to PHP 5.3?
• What server o/s will you use PHP 5.3 on?
• Where will you get your PHP 5.3 from?
• Have you adopted PHP 5.3 yet?

27. But Did You? :)
My $distro doesn’t support it yet 3% 1%
2%
6%
I tried, but it wasn’t ready for production use
7% 33%
Waiting for PHP 5.3.1
PHP 5.2 is just fine, thanks
Yes ... and I’m loving it!
My $hostingCompany doesn’t support it yet 23%
Other
My $customer cannot host it yet 25%
An amazing 1330 votes cast

28. What Does It Mean?

29. Before Release: When
Percentage
Adopting within 6 months 51
Waiting for someone to supply it 31
Waiting until they have to 13
0 12 24 36 48 60

30. Before Release: Where
Percentage
Debian / Ubuntu 42
RedHat 15
Solaris 11
Chosen for them 17
Windows Server 3
0 10 20 30 40 50

31. Before Release: How
Approx Percentage
Linux distros 43
Build for themselves 26
Demand on Windows 15
Deployed on Windows 3
Zend has room to grow 6
0 10 20 30 40 50

32. After Release
Percentage
Haven’t tried PHP 5.3 yet 69
Tried PHP 5.3 but not happy 25
Adopted PHP 5.3 6
0 17.5 35.0 52.5 70.0

33. After Release
Percentage
Cannot Adopt Yet 63
Will Not Adopt Yet 30
0 20 40 60 80

34. Summary

35. What Have We Learned?
• Debian / Ubuntu the dominant platform
• Most developers wait for someone to
provide them with working binary packages
• Vast majority cannot or will not adopt
quickly
• Many of those who did adopt not happy

36. What Have We Learned?
• Debian / Ubuntu the dominant platform
• Most developers wait for someone to
provide them with working binary packages
• Vast majority cannot or will not adopt
quickly
• Many of those who did adopt not happy

37. What Have We Learned?
• Debian / Ubuntu the dominant platform
• Most developers wait for someone to
provide them with working binary packages
• Vast majority cannot or will not adopt
quickly
• Many of those who did adopt not happy

38. What Have We Learned?
• Debian / Ubuntu the dominant platform
• Most developers wait for someone to
provide them with working binary packages
• Vast majority cannot or will not adopt
quickly
• Many of those who did adopt not happy

39. What Else Have We Learned?
• Hosting companies and customer choices
only affect a small number of developers
(4% of actual deployments)
• Windows Server not yet an important
platform for developers (3% of deployments)
• Zend has surprisingly small market share
(6% of planned deployments)
• Are these opportunities, or a wake-up call?

40. What Else Have We Learned?
• Hosting companies and customer choices
only affect a small number of developers
(4% of actual deployments)
• Windows Server not yet an important
platform for developers (3% of deployments)
• Zend has surprisingly small market share
(6% of planned deployments)
• Are these opportunities, or a wake-up call?

41. What Else Have We Learned?
• Hosting companies and customer choices
only affect a small number of developers
(4% of actual deployments)
• Windows Server not yet an important
platform for developers (3% of deployments)
• Zend has surprisingly small market share
(6% of planned deployments)
• Are these opportunities, or a wake-up call?

42. What Else Have We Learned?
• Hosting companies and customer choices
only affect a small number of developers
(4% of actual deployments)
• Windows Server not yet an important
platform for developers (3% of deployments)
• Zend has surprisingly small market share
(6% of planned deployments)
• Are these opportunities, or a wake-up call?

43. What Can We Do About It?
• Official PHP.net binaries might drive earlier
adoption of new releases
• Better understanding of early adopter issues
would reduce the rejection rate in future
• Does the .0 release need to be released
sooner, to gain wider testing than QA
releases do?
• Get the .1 release out and into the hands of
users sooner to drive the second wave of
adopters

44. What Can We Do About It?
• Official PHP.net binaries might drive earlier
adoption of new releases
• Better understanding of early adopter issues
would reduce the rejection rate in future
• Does the .0 release need to be released
sooner, to gain wider testing than QA
releases do?
• Get the .1 release out and into the hands of
users sooner to drive the second wave of
adopters

45. What Can We Do About It?
• Official PHP.net binaries might drive earlier
adoption of new releases
• Better understanding of early adopter issues
would reduce the rejection rate in future
• Does the .0 release need to be released
sooner, to gain wider testing than QA
releases do?
• Get the .1 release out and into the hands of
users sooner to drive the second wave of
adopters

46. What Can We Do About It?
• Official PHP.net binaries might drive earlier
adoption of new releases
• Better understanding of early adopter issues
would reduce the rejection rate in future
• Does the .0 release need to be released
sooner, to gain wider testing than QA
releases do?
• Get the .1 release out and into the hands of
users sooner to drive the second wave of
adopters

47. Thank You For Reading
Stuart Herbert
stuart@stuartherbert.com
blog.stuartherbert.com/php/