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“I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure”

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Re: “I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure”

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We all know that you can't trust Microsoft, but a lot of people blindly trust Canonical just because they create a Linux distro. I haven't trusted Canonical since I noticed their pattern of creating competing alternatives to new Linux standards instead of helping them (Mir & Wayland, Snap & Flatpack, Unity & Gnome 3). It'd be one thing if they were bringing better ideas and long-term support to their alternatives, bu…

Yeah, stuff like this is why I only treat Ubuntu as a stepping stone. I even tried to install Debian while I'm still not really used to Linux, but the graphics card immediately crapped itself on boot, so it will have to wait...

I guess you have an Nvidia card? The two other major vendors have mainline (therefore GPLed) drivers and basically work out of the box. Keep that in mind during your next hardware upgrade.

Nvidia was the least terrible solution about 10 years ago (I have PTSD from installing binary blobs and editing Xorg.conf to make it work.) While others have improved tremendously and you don't have to do anything to get full 2D and 3D acceleration (just boot the system), the Nvidia experience™ hasn't changed much since then.

Re: “I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure”

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe he has a good reason to keep it turned off. Like avoiding giving people like spammers, scammers, marketers and websites that hire incompetent web developers attention they do not deserve.

Right. But then stop complaining about it every chance you get. It’s the equivalent of taking the steering wheel out of your car so if you get in an accident you don’t hit your head on it, then complaining that streets have turns. For better or worse, the web now requires JS to function unless you restrict yourself to some very specific communities. If that’s the case and you want to do that, good for you. But every…

I disagree. Bad practices, like (linking to) websites that do not degrade gracefully, is worthwhile. Only by creating awareness, change can be invoked.

Re: “I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure”

#263
post #76
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a Canonical rep contacting him purely a "Microsoft feature"?

Well, what should we be more angry about? That Canonicals sales rep is using data in their CMS, or that Microsoft is selling data to third parties. The root cause seems to be Microsoft, not Canonical and (at least in my eye) the conclusion is not "don't trust Ubuntu", but "don't trust Azure".

As stated above, MS isn't selling this information. They are providing it for customer support purposes.

In the business world, having data marked "customer support only" is pretty common. There are quite a few laws acknowledging the difference. Importantly, the data is supposed to be kept separate and it sounds like Canonical screwed up here.

Re: “I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure”

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "On February 10th, a new Canonical Sales Representative contacted one of these developers via LinkedIn, with a poor choice of word. In light of this incident, Canonical will be reviewing its sales training and policies." The part I find the most enlightening (ie: disturbing) is that Canonical's only regret is that the sales rep used "a poor choice of word" and they will train their salespeople better. I assume the…

> the salesman wasn't supposed to TELL YOU that we are monitoring what you install Exactly. The old "I'm sorry I got caught" and not "I'm sorry I did it."

We can do better™

Re: “I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure”

#265
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You buy a dishwasher from Best Buy. They send your name and address to Maytag. For warranty purposes of course > You buy soap from Walmart. They send your name and address to Johnson & Johnson. In case they need to recall the soap > You buy a sandwich at your local deli. They send your name and address to Boar’s Head. Cool? So you can get some cool Boar's Head swag! Just kidding of course. We need much better data…

> So you can get some cool Boar's Head swag! I can’t even imagine what that might be. But technical support for my sandwich making needs would be fun. Kind of how Butterball (I think it’s them) has a help line on Thanksgiving for cooking turkeys. They made the news a few years ago by hiring men to work the phones because they learned that men cook more frequently now but feel uncomfortable asking women for advice. I…

I have a sneaking suspicion Boar's Head et al. know sandwich making secrets that would substantially improve my lunches.

I mean, you do anything for long enough, you get good at it. Especially if you're soliciting feedback from even more people who are doing it.

I think somewhere out there there's a story of a Brita customer support rep tracking down a filtration engineer to get a technical answer to how long one could filter and drink urine for.

Re: “I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure”

#266
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I think we all know why. They make money from it. The question that’s more relevant is how many of you are going to cancel your Azure accounts and move to a different host after seeing this and will it lose MS enough money to stop the practice. I’m taking bets that not enough will at 50:1 odds.

Do you really think Ubuntu doesn't already have similar agreements with other cloud providers...? Azure is a big fish. If they managed to get that, they definitely got smaller ones.

I'm pretty sure it's the other way around, and Microsoft has similar agreements with most of its partners.

Ubuntu's however, is a free OS, so any cloud hosting can use it without major repercussions even without any support contract with Canonical. Any cloud provider that doesn't like this agreement, doesn't have to make it.

Re: “I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure”

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is more so *why* Microsoft is sharing this information with Canonical. — what does it obtain from it? Ubuntu is gratis, so Canonical can't have coerced Microsoft into doing so; it is quite probable that one approached the other to make a deal, and that Canonical is paying a certain fee for this information.

The code is gratis. Although, partnership deals tend to go beyond simply sharing code, and into the realm of dedicating time and resources to working with each other.

I think this is why this doesn't shock (shock!) me.

We're talking about a curated, supported, official image here, right?

If folks want to use a "MyUbuntuImage" they or someone else packaged and uploaded, more power to them.

But by pulling a Canonical image, you have a relationship with Canonical. Expecting that relationship not to exist "because open source" seems to be misunderstanding who does what work.

As to whether this should be opt-in, done, etc. is another matter entirely. But the fact that it exists at all doesn't feel particular shocking.

It's not like we're talking about everyone who pulls a RedHat image's info being sent to Canonical!

Re: “I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure”

#269
It's a real shame, Ubuntu used to be my go-to distro, but for me this is the last straw in the history of shady things Canonical has done.

One of the things I liked most about Ubuntu is that the installation process is incredibly easy and everything "just works". Does anyone know a good alternative?

I'd love to go all in on Alpine, but using it on the desktop doesn't exactly spark joy.

Re: “I saw that you spun up an Ubuntu image in Azure”

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Just FYI, this is bad manners. I deleted the comment because I didn't want to continue the conversation and I especially didn't want to engage with you - specifically, your comments here and elsewhere indicate that you are frequently toxic and hostile. You deciding to resurrect the comment because you happened to see it before I deleted it is really not OK. It's the exact kind of toxic hostile, creepy interaction I w…

Erasing history and demanding others follow your lead is bad manners.

Posting something and deleting it after it has been seen is basically gaslighting. Imagine the kinds of harassment people could get away with if they said rude things to coworkers on chat, then edited the messages to appear benign after the coworker responded to their hostility.

That is why people quote the text of comments to which they want to reply.

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