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Fix Ubuntu

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Re: Fix Ubuntu

#141
post #92
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is great! It's nice to know there's others out there ripping out unknown unity shit too! Do you have any idea what the following do and if they can be removed easily also ? goa-daemon, zeitgeist, mission-control, bamfdaemon

bamfdaemon is quite important I think. It is responsible to coordinate windows and unity icons with .desktop files. zeitgeist takes care of your used documents and applications?. I tried to get rid of it but the dependencies here are quite entangled and it's useful to have often used applications and documents at hand in Unity. goa is GNOME online accounts. The dubious idea to connect your online account with your de…

"It's a shame that modern desktop Linux has no decent manpages for most of this stuff."

I completely agree and double so for things that destroy a running system because of lack of documentation. In some ways Unity has really jumped the shark on the good aspects that ubuntu was bringing. I wonder if anyone from the debian project has considered rolling their own Unity version with all the crapola ripped out. Now that's a DE I would start using in a heartbeat.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#142
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really haven't noticed a big difference between XP to 7. The control panel things moved around a bit, but the settings were all still in the Control Panel (and you could get the classic view back easily), and I had to figure out how to right-click on things "run as Admin". My son just hopped from XP to 7 and he's been having zero issues. I admit I haven't gone to Windows 8. I owe myself a new laptop and I just have…

XP->7 was probably way easier than doing it with Vista as an intermediate!

I actually used Vista on one machine for years. I never saw the usability problems that UAC caused, but I appreciated the security aspect of it so I didn't mind being bugged when trying to change my IP.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#143
post #115
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…

Or use Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu or Ubuntu GNOME. None of these use Unity as their default desktop, whose default behavior is really what this complaint is about.

If Unity is the problem, Ubuntu has the Gnome Shell already in its repo. Its quick and easy.

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

You keep the benefits of the Ubuntu package repo, kernel patches, etc.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#144
post #16

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

Canonical has monetization models that don't turn a Linux desktop experience into a billboard for Amazon. I use Amazon often and like it. I understand they mine the hell out of my interactions with Amazon, and that's fine.

But it is a mistake for Canonical to hook Amazon, which can be very intrusive, into practically every interaction with an Ubuntu desktop. It's jarring and objectionable to find a vendor who would aggressively data mine you wired in to an OS you used to be able to count on to be security-oriented and non-intrusive.

It isn't even right for Ubuntu Touch devices. When I use a Google-logo Android device, I make a knowing bargain, trading information for convenience and capabilities. The only thing Ubuntu does better than Android is to leave me alone.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#145
" I wanted to update/install my nvidia drivers, so I opened the dash and typed "drivers". IT DISPLAYED GOLF CLUBS on sale at Amazon!"

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/bikeshed/vtXkVdALoJ8/N...

Of course, 14.04 will increase the usability level by automatically charging your credit card, with next day delivery of the golf clubs guaranteed.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#146
post #131
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…

I'll respond, though I'm sure the reason nobody's responded is they're as tired of this conversation as I am. 1) Yet. When boiling frogs it's best to turn the heat up slowly. Canonical isn't providing a service for free here, they make money mining your searches and sending them to 3rd parties like Amazon. Compare this with its parent distribution's Social Contract. [0] Especially the phrase "We will be guided by the…

I said that there is no privacy violation. None of your arguments demonstrate otherwise.

> 1) [profit motive]

The Mozilla Foundation's main source of income is making money through Google searches. If you accept Mozilla in the GNU/Linux world, then you accept this motive on your own terms.

> 2) Real users may not realize they have a choice, or that sending searches to 3rd parties is NOT normal in the GNU/Linux world.

This is a philosophical argument about foisting your own beliefs onto new Ubuntu users. Ubuntu has always been the pragmatic distribution. It gained popularity by making non-free codecs and proprietary drivers easily available. This pragmatism has not changed.

And this still doesn't have anything to do with a claimed privacy violation.

> 2b) EULA's are no excuse.

Which is why I had my point 2: that it is plainly obvious that the search is a global search, and that the query was sent out to the Internet. You don't need to read any notice to see this.

> [spyware]

You have not shown that there is any spyware present. That would require some kind of privacy violation.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#147
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or use Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu or Ubuntu GNOME. None of these use Unity as their default desktop, whose default behavior is really what this complaint is about.

If Unity is the problem, Ubuntu has the Gnome Shell already in its repo. Its quick and easy. $ sudo apt-get install gnome-shell You keep the benefits of the Ubuntu package repo, kernel patches, etc.

Yes. This is true for all the other Ubuntu flavors, too. Either way will get you to the same system, since all the flavors share the same Ubuntu apt archive. Using a flavor directly just gets you your chosen desktop environment by default.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people you know don't use stock Ubuntu. My mom and yours don't even know what a package manager is.

My parents use Xubuntu because it's the closest you can get to WindowsXP ;)

I would have suggested Linux Mint/any distro that you can drop Cinnamon DE onto. Cinnamon has more updates, almost as much customization as XFCE, and doesn't look as old as Win95.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#150
post #16

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

It's kind of sad that this is the only way Ubuntu figured they can make money.

No, it's sad that they don't take a holistic view of how they make money: They serve enterprise users and help create Ubuntu-based products for a fee, which business they would not have if Ubuntu was not the leading Linux distro, which it won't be if they screw up privacy issues.

Ubuntu has lost quite a bit of share to Mint. I have not been cranky enough about Unity to switch, but if I do find search data leaking despite the "privacy" settings that would about do it.

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