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Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

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Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#211
post #61

Ok, moving to Linux Mint next. Any other suggestions?

Our goal is to give users a good search experience while funding ourselves by receiving a share of this income. Search engines who do not share the income generated by our users, are removed from Linux Mint and might get their ads blocked.

...

It won’t only be down to donations and sponsorships anymore, your activity on the web, every search query you make and product you buy will help fund our project.

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1851

* * *

Try Trisquel http://trisquel.info/ which based on Ubuntu, with non-free software removed.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#212
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you're making such a big fuss about this rather inconsequental point. All I'm saying is that you should generally use apt-get and not the lower level tool dpkg. I used an incorrect justification for that (removing doesn't lead to an inconsistent state), but you still should preferrably use apt-get. Let's get back to debating more interesting stuff now.

I'm not the only one that thinks your claim is left wanting. I cannot speak for them but I am interested in why you think apt-get is preferred over dpkg in this case because I am a decade long loyal user of Debian. My original point was that the dpkg command is shorter and that is why I have used it over the longer apt-get invocation. I am generally interested in learning more about Debian. If the way I have been doi…

Okay fine "wrong" is perhaps too strong, it's rather "not appropriate/ideal". My point was simply that dpkg is lower level, so it should not be the go-to tool for normal users. The comment which started all this was the comment suggesting a command with "dpkg" was 'better' (because it was a few characters shorter I suppose), and I merely chimed in to point out that that was probably not a good thing to say, thinking of how this lower level tool provides more potential for mucking up your system; e.g., accidentally trying to remove an essential package; I believe dpkg wouldn't ask for confirmation right? Also new users would probably be overwhelmed by all the options of dpkg.

The only time I've been forced to use dpkg in the past ten years was when the system was seriously messed up e.g. in the middle of a failed upgrade.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#213
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You type too much: sudo dpkg -P unity-lens-shopping

My favorite bash aliases: alias canhaz='sudo apt-get install' alias donotwant='sudo apt-get remove'

Excellent! Pasting that into my bash_aliases now.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#214
post #210

Why don't they just ask for money from users? Have two versions: an ad supported one which people can easily remove the ads, and a paid version that doesn't come with the ad package by default, and maybe a few extra "premium" perks like wallpapers, themes, whatever that aren't in the FOSS repos together with extra backup space. They could charge on a par with OS X, say a total of $29 for the next two versions.

Because very few users would actually pay. You may be generous, but they are not dumb as well.

How do you know few users would pay? Given the right sales pitch it's possible a fair number would.

I would pay if I were still an Ubuntu user. The only reason I don't use stock Ubuntu now is because of Unity.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#215
post #124
post #104

It is beyond time for Ubuntu to quit pussyfooting around and partner with ASUS or some other competent hardware manufacturer* and sell Ubuntu-branded laptops on the Ubuntu website. The Linux desktop (in various incarnations) has been in "testing" for over 15 years. Shuttleworth created Canonical and hired designers and developers to put together a 1st-class desktop system. Time to double down. Try and get some real c…

Better partner with Lenovo, Linux runs really almost perfectly on Thinkpads.

I used to believe that before I got a Thinkpad. Now I think: if this is "almost perfect", I'm in trouble.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#216

Why don't they just ask for money from users? Have two versions: an ad supported one which people can easily remove the ads, and a paid version that doesn't come with the ad package by default, and maybe a few extra "premium" perks like wallpapers, themes, whatever that aren't in the FOSS repos together with extra backup space. They could charge on a par with OS X, say a total of $29 for the next two versions.

That would make it very non-free software. And that is what ubuntu is trying to not be.

If you're referring to the price, well, that was covered by another comment.

Ubuntu's full of non-free software and binary blobs. This is why it pretty much works out of the box. There's little fucking around with drivers, non-free codecs, etc.

In any event, adding non-free "premium" features doesn't make the operating system itself any less free.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#218
Wow... that is just wow. I mean this is the latest evidence that Ubuntu does not listen to user feedback. First they shove unity to our throats and trolled everybody who disagreed with it. And now this.

They are really stretching the definition of free software. Is a software free if I don't pay for it up front but made the company get revenue based on the data I provide. I find this very insidious to be honest. True, they need money; and money does not grow on trees that is very true but is this the best approach? Irritating the user base with every major decision you made does not seem to be a good move in my humble opinion.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#219
post #175
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've just found Debian breaks too much and is mostly deprecated, e.g. Python 2.4?

Debian Stable doesn't break - it is The Other Linux when it comes to servers. Debian Testing and Debian Unstable do occasionally break... but that's kind've in their names.

I have ran Debian Testing for a couple of years now and it has broke less for me than Ubuntu used to do. I am very impressed with the stability of something called Testing.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#220
post #63
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

%> sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio %> sudo reboot You're welcome.

Yeah ... been there and done that. I've also added the PA volume control as recommended by others. Funny that one problem can be solved by two completely opposite actions (or in my case remains unsolved in both).

Often when you get contradictory advice like that the people giving the advice do not have a clue what the real solution is.
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