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Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

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Re: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

#201

Post by Karunamon »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #192
Karunamon wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just because he doesn't talk and write the way you think he should If he can't communicate his ideas in a calm and balanced way, perhaps those ideas don't have as much value as he thinks they do. Sorry, but method of delivery counts for a lot.

> If you ever recommend or redistribute GNU/Linux, please remove Ubuntu from the distros you recommend or redistribute. Whether or not I agree with it I found it quite calm and balanced (just like the phrase quoted above). Note there are no insults or exclamation points. Perhaps his writing isn't the issue here, but your perception.

Hyperbole delivered calmly is still hyperbole.

Re: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

#202

Post by [deleted] »

btilly wrote: post #84

Canonical is not the first to do this. And nobody minded. In Chrome, every time you start to type a URL, it tries to autocomplete. One source of autocompletions is that it contacts Google, which sends back suggestions. Therefore by default Google knows every search you do in Chrome, even if you didn't want to go to Google. (They turn this off for incognito mode.) I don't know how long this has been the case for Chrom…

[deleted]

Re: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

#203

Post by zellyn »

I'm slightly surprised to feel this way, but upon reflection, I actually like rms's rebranding of DRM as "digital restrictions management".

Calling DRM "Digital rights management" is about as accurate as calling prison "freedom management".

Re: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

#204

Post by slowpoke »

pasbesoin wrote: post #176

Stuff like this should be opt-in. And, if you want it to succeed, it should be good enough that people want to opt-in. People search on Google -- they opt-in to Google Search -- because the results satisfy them (more than the competition). If Canonical's partners want people to opt-in to their collaborative offerings, they should make them offer significant value. And Canonical, for its part, if they want to successf…

>People search on Google -- they opt-in to Google Search -- because the results satisfy them (more than the competition).

Um, no. A lot of people don't even know there is competition to Google. They don't "opt-in" to Google just as much as they don't "opt-in" to using Windows, they've just always used it because it comes with their browser/PC. There's a reason Google pays Mozilla a few million every year to be the default search engine.

Re: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

#205

Post by [deleted] »

cooldeal wrote: post #183
cs702 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the solutions suggested by rms strikes me as reasonable: Ubuntu should make make search only local by default, but show a "search online too" toggle button right next to all search results. If Ubuntu does that, the problem goes away, because users who want only local search don't have to do anything, and users who want global search can turn online search on/off at will by clicking a toggle button right there…

>f Ubuntu does that, the problem goes away No it doesn't. Ubuntu's "problem" is that it's not making any money, at least not enough to support the 500 employees it has. Making it non-default will kill 99% of the revenue from Amazon since hardly anyone(not enough people to make money on) will go out of the way to click the toggle button.

[deleted]

Re: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

#206

Post by pajju »

belorn wrote: post #59

A lot of people are pointing out that if you do not like something, don't use it. It's simple enough, and have a "sounds right" tone to it. As an implied statement with this, anyone complaining should just shut up then. This is a rather crazy line of thought once one actually starts to think about it. If I see a poisonous (say rotten) food being sold, I find it almost my duty to inform people. Somehow it's now being…

Let Ubuntu charge a dollar or two for Ubuntu OS. I'm ready to pay year on year for the service.

Also most big Enterprises are running Ubuntu boxes within their organization, why don't they contribute? Ubuntu or Canonical don't have an enterprise model?

With developers who are paranoid like me, and are willing to pay a dollar or two to opt-out of ads and spywares, let them keep a dialog box for a $ payment during installation or a donate option to opt-out of Amazon ads.

And If you don't pay, then you get ads. Makes sense with this model.

But having such tie-ups with Amazon and selling user behaviors, their intentions are not clear. They will loose their loyal fan-boys. So am I, who is very paranoid now.

Looks like they want to become a B$ company!

Re: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

#207

Post by loucal »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #98
nathanb wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Linux isn't free, not only does it cost time, it costs privacy. How does that follow? I'm assuming you're using an economic rather than ideological definition of the world "free", which sort of misunderstands the point of the article, but OK. The Linux kernel does not, to my knowledge, include anything which explicitly violates your privacy. If a Linux system distributor chooses to install privacy-invading bits on…

>The Linux kernel Its 100% obvious from the context of my post that I was using linux as a shorthand for this distro. I really hate this disingenuous rhetorical trick. When people start talking about stupid things distros do suddenly its "OH WAIT, LINUX IS JUST A KERNEL!" Err, no one is just running the kernel. We're all running some distro. Its like a 'god of the gaps' argument for geeks. You get backed into a corne…

If that is 100% obvious to you, I would recommend some writing classes, along with a good bit of reading comprehension work. Good luck on your journey to meaningful communication.

Re: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

#208

Post by loucal »

People really use Unity? I might be rolling my eyes a bit at Canonical for this decision, but seriously who would even want to use Unity, they can do what they want with it as far as I'm concerned.

We can't have it both ways, for software to be free, Canonical has to be 'allowed' to do this. The community is now very aware of what is going on, and that is good. We can make our own decisions as informed users. Uninformed users have always been at a disadvantage, that will never change. Case closed to me, lets not turn this into an episode of the 'Real Housewives of the GNU' it really shouldn't be as dramatic as this comment war would have you believe.

Re: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

#209

Post by sp332 »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #98
nathanb wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Linux isn't free, not only does it cost time, it costs privacy. How does that follow? I'm assuming you're using an economic rather than ideological definition of the world "free", which sort of misunderstands the point of the article, but OK. The Linux kernel does not, to my knowledge, include anything which explicitly violates your privacy. If a Linux system distributor chooses to install privacy-invading bits on…

>The Linux kernel Its 100% obvious from the context of my post that I was using linux as a shorthand for this distro. I really hate this disingenuous rhetorical trick. When people start talking about stupid things distros do suddenly its "OH WAIT, LINUX IS JUST A KERNEL!" Err, no one is just running the kernel. We're all running some distro. Its like a 'god of the gaps' argument for geeks. You get backed into a corne…

Linux includes Android smartphones, most of the top supercomputers in the world right now, stock exchanges, and so on. It's true that "we're all running some distro" but 99.9% of the distros don't have this problem, so you can't say that "Linux" has this problem.

Re: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

#210

Post by keithpeter »

chipaca wrote: post #148
keithpeter wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which version, QQ or 13.04? I'm on QQ with Unity. Everything Everywhere is having some fun with their 'profile generator' at present, and we have exactly 0.24Mbit/s of bandwidth, so that might be an issue.

12.10. It was one of the last changes before the freeze on QQ (re: https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity-lens-shopping/+bug/1060979 ), and a server-side change. BTW, you seem to have the name/numbers convention backwards :) it's codename during dev, numbers once released. So it's 12.10 or RR now.

I was never one for convention :-)

Yes, much better. Working off a USB stick with persistent space, (I have the Gnome Ubuntu Remix as PC os at present) and this box has Nvidia graphics, and we have problems with the broadband. So as slow a combination as I can imagine anyone new to Ubuntu seeing.

Searches now seem to be completing before sending to Amazon, and my maths related file name terms were bringing up sensible UK relevant suggestions from Amazon, mainly textbook titles. This 'feature' has got a lot smoother since I first saw it.

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