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Fix Ubuntu

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Re: Fix Ubuntu

#121
post #102

Solution: stop using Ubuntu. There are lots of other very able distributions out there, many of which not only have better privacy features but also are technologically superior in one way or another. In no particular order, these are all very capable operating systems for a variety of needs: * https://fedoraproject.org/ * http://www.centos.org/ * http://www.opensuse.org/ * http://www.mageia.org/ * https://www.archli…

Yep! I've moved to using Debian for production machines and gentoo for personal/development machines. I've been quite happy with the move. SuSE has a big focus on the enterprise level - I didn't realize that until earlier this year when I talked with a SuSE dev. So enterprises have options other than Ubuntu for standardized & supported Linux.

Not to mention the venerable RHEL.

List of Enterprise Linuxes:

* http://www.redhat.com/products/enterprise-linux/

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux

* https://www.suse.com/solutions/platform.html

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUSE_Linux_Enterprise_Server

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUSE_Linux_Enterprise_Desktop

* http://www.centos.org/

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CentOS

* https://www.scientificlinux.org/

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Linux

And so forth...

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#122
post #89
post #24

If people did 30 seconds of searching they'd realize this information is available on the official Stack Exchange site AskUbuntu.com which is directly supported by Canonical's paid staff: http://askubuntu.com/questions/192269/how-can-i-remove-amazo...

True but this site also acts as criticism to the approach in the first place, and also guarantees that this information will remain available and findable in the future, should Canonical change its mind about making this information easy to find.

I'm just trying to point out that the people who say Canonical is trying to silence the guy are just talking out their ass. They are freely providing this information in the number one place people go to ask questions about Ubuntu. All they did was say (incredibly nicely and politely) "Hey, umm... so, that's our copyrighted name and logo, and you know, you're really supposed to ask permission before using them".

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#123
post #109
post #28

Ubuntu provides by default an on/off slider in its privacy settings for disabling the display of online search results in the dash[1], BUT I'm not sure if changing that slider to 'off' will also disable the sharing of searches with Canonical's servers. (The language used by the settings app is ambiguous: "When searching on the dash, include online search results - ON/OFF.") Moreover, I don't particularly feel like sp…

It's open source. Since it sounds like you won't trust Canonical's claim on this anyway, why don't you take a look, or ask somebody who can, instead of creating fear about it? If it turns out that searches leak out despite the setting, I'm sure you'll hit the front page of HN. Since this hasn't happened, and Canonical have been under considerable scrutiny about it, I think it's safe to say that your conspiracy theory…

If the searches leak out despite the settings, I would like to know about it so I can promptly issue a security update.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#124
post #29

My personal fix Ubuntu: Be careful, this is pretty rude and may break stuff - it is also not complete but some dependencies are too entangled. Only geoclue and indicator-datetime still annoy me. The idea to poll the internet regulary to check for the timezone of the machine is beyond me. apt-get purge ubuntuone* # I don't use it apt-get purge unity-lens-music unity-lens-video unity-lens-photos # I don't need the inte…

Just use Debian.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#126
post #97
post #51

I (still) don't think online searches are a privacy violation. 1) It's a search box. Stuff not typed in the search box never leaves the machine (unless you count things that do by design, such as web browsers and email, obviously). 2) It's plainly obvious the first time you use it that results are coming back from the Internet. No real user is going to be misled into believing that searches are local. This makes it n…

It's a search box that many people will use exclusively to search for _local_ content. Why should Amazon know what programs and files I'm using?

> It's a search box that many people will use exclusively to search for _local_ content.

You're using the wrong search box if you want to search exclusively for local content. Try hitting Super-A, Super-F or clicking on the applications or files tabs to search locally.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#127
post #28

Ubuntu provides by default an on/off slider in its privacy settings for disabling the display of online search results in the dash[1], BUT I'm not sure if changing that slider to 'off' will also disable the sharing of searches with Canonical's servers. (The language used by the settings app is ambiguous: "When searching on the dash, include online search results - ON/OFF.") Moreover, I don't particularly feel like sp…

Why not just use a non-Unity desktop? At this point all 3 major spins of Ubuntu are highly stable and functional.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#128
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the part explaining what each of the commands does...?

Did you read the linked article? It doesn't matter what it looks like you're copying/pasting, or how it's explained in the site you're copying/pasting it from.

Thanks for posting that - I came in here to do the same thing but you beat me to it. Please read the linked article before ever copying and pasting from the web!

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#129
Alternative method: click the big on/off switch for online search results.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not defending Ubuntu. I think it's gross that they include this at all, and extra-gross that it's on by default. But let's not get too carried away with the hyperbole and conspiracy theories.

Just read the source! Or if you don't trust the source, just examine your network traffic. Pretty easy to verify whether the button does what it claims...

EDIT/PSA: Don't copy/paste things from a website directly into your terminal. See http://thejh.net/misc/website-terminal-copy-paste, for example.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#130
post #16

All Linux distros should be free charities and their developers should eat catfood and ramen.

Most distros make it really easy to donate. It's a worthwhile investment!
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