this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 75 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I actually have some telemetry enabled on my system, cause I want the maintainers of my distro to have more data to base their decisions on. I always disable everything for proprietary software though, and I dislike opt-out systems.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I only enable telemetry for software provided by nonprofit organizations that are legally obligated to publish detailed financial records. Never give anyone that reserves the right to sell you out any of the benefit of your data for free.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

If they ask nicely, maybe I will accept. The KDE guys have telemetry iirc, they get what they need.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Just why?

It's been really sad watching them shoot themselves in the foot like this. They seem bent on destroying their distro. Which was the first distro I really used on an old laptop after trying a few.

Man Ubuntu 16 those were the days.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago

It's also amazing they even try because a good percentage of Ubuntu users are likely knowledgeable tech users who like to stay aware of their software. Many of them are probably former or current Microsoft or Apple users who want to avoid big corporate OS systems because of creeping advertising.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Why? Because it's working, at least for now.

Canonical has pulled similar shit for years now. Remember the Amazon search integration? They do it again and again, yet most users stay.

And I know, someone will comment "but I totally ditched Ubuntu and my one friend did too!!!!", but how is Ubuntu still the most popular distribution? Finding snaps is easier than finding flatpacks or debs or rpms. Finding support is easier, etc. This might be just momentum, but until that is running out, it's working.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Microsoft:

adding telemetry to the terminal.
(in a recent poweshell update)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

with microsoft, it's everyday affair.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 114 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (11 children)

This is the "ad". Personally, I don't think a little plug like this is worth any kind of fuss. If it were a real ad or something, then yea I would get it.

[–] [email protected] 128 points 11 months ago (6 children)

An ad is an ad and this definitely is an ad. This is the kind of shit that made me quit Windows and it would make me quit Ubuntu if I was using it.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 11 months ago (6 children)

This. Any unsollicited communication that's meant to make you investigate or buy a commercial product is an advertisement. That's all. Is it less intrusive than the TikTok ad in Windows start menu, I think it may be, but it's still an advertisement, by definition.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Is it less intrusive

For me it is, I would've never ever expected an ad on cli, on a local install, on my machine.

Logged into an ec2 and see an advert? Sure. But not on my own shit. It's a true "ah fuck I can't believe you've done this" factor.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

I think this is the best take. This alone if it went nowhere is fairly harmless.

But I think we know what it really is, is the start of a slippery slope.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 11 months ago (1 children)

While I'm not bothered by this in particular, like other people have said, it feels like the top of a very slippery slope that I would be bothered by

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

That's pretty much how I feel about it. This specific method is alright by me, but it could very easily become something intrusive.

[–] sederx 32 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Technically, but it's coming from the same servers your packages are being downloaded from, right?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't think that's from a server but instead it's baked into apt. Or some post-install trigger.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

this plus the snap crap they've been doing was enough for me to switch to Debian

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I went through the entire cycle.

  • Ubuntu
  • Pop_OS!
  • Mint
  • Manjaro
  • Arch
  • Fedora

And finally I’m at Debian.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I've been getting ads like these for years on my ubuntu server.

n additional security updates can be applied with ESM Apps.
Learn more about enabling ESM Apps service at https://ubuntu.com/esm

This is on a machine running 20.04. Never bothered me. All my other machines are Debian now, and at some point I'll switch that one too.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, plus given you can get pro for free it really seems more like a announcement than an ad. Slippery slope though.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (5 children)

What's an ad if not a commercial announcement?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Yeah, this isn't that bad. It's just a suggestion after running an apt upgrade. NPM has similar plugs which I don't find too annoying.

In fact its not even as intrusive as NPM's funding requests, as it is only 2 lines of text, plus it looks like Ubuntu Pro is free for personal use.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I see a lot of people comment that this isn’t that bad and that it might even be acceptable, and that’s exactly the problem here: it’s a gateway drug and if we normalise this, Canonical will keep pushing the limits of what they can pull off before it’s not acceptable anymore, and that sounds when it’s too late.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I agree that I wouldnt call that an ad, but it's a pretty distasteful plug

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

This is not what I would consider an ad. I also remember seeing it only once

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

Haven't kept up with Ubuntu, but I believe this. It's in line with Canonical's behavior. They are very corporaty

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Looking at your history, you really hate Ubuntu u/RmDebArc_5, don't you?

[–] [email protected] 83 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I don’t hate Ubuntu, it used to be my favorite distro and I haven’t found anything that really replaces it. I hate Canonical for destroying my favorite distro

[–] [email protected] 49 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Debian 12 is the best destination after Ubuntu if you're switching because you hate stupid Canonical things. I switched a few months ago and it was really easy and has been awesome.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago

Telemetry is significantly less invasive than on windows or Mac, and is completely optional during installation, after which you will never be asked to turn it on again

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What? Is that so? What happened with ubuntu?

[–] [email protected] 61 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Damn, guess I should go back to Windows /s

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Which version of Ubuntu you’re installing (including which flavour), Whether you have network connectivity, Hardware stats, including CPU, RAM, GPU, etc, Your device vendor (e.g., Dell, Lenovo, etc), Your country (based on the time zone you pick, not IP), How long your install took to complete, Whether you have auto login enabled, Your disk layout (how many hard drives and partitions you have), Whether you chose to install third party codecs, Whether you chose to download updates during install

(According to OMG!Ubuntu) Most distros offer optional telemetry, but Ubuntu’s is opt out not opt in (for GNOME you have to separately install the telemetry)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Ubuntu’s is opt out not opt in

I haven't installed ubuntu in a while, but in EU you need to have prior consent from the user to gather any kind of data and if I remember correctly I haven't seen such thing. And it's not enough to bury that into documentation and say 'if you use our software you allow us to blah blah', you must get consent via an action from the user which spesifically allows that, so if telemetry comes silently with 'apt dist-upgrade' it's not enough.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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