Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

yro.slashdot.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 240 posts

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#11

Post by avolcano »

Honestly, if Ubuntu dropped their ridiculous, underdeveloped, undersupported Ubuntu One services and partnered with Amazon to integrate theirs (Cloud Player/Cloud Drive/etc), that would be a MAJOR improvement for both them and the end-user. Excellent cross-platform cloud services and marketplaces integrated with the OS would be great for bringing less-technical users to the platform in the wake of the proposed "Windows 8 exodus" (if it actually happens).

Instead, they're using... basically affiliate links. Instead of a real monetization strategy involving a real partnership, they're using the "blogger who just realized he could make money off of this thing" strategy.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#15

Post by gizmo686 »

bashzor wrote: post #2

What the hell... I'll never use Ubuntu again. Or well, at least not for a while, even after it's removed. They call this "free software"?

How do pre-installed ads violate any free-software doctrine? One can still access/modify the source code of any part of the operating system (except proprietary drivers). It does not attempt to hinder a users ability to do anything with the computer.

An example of a free-software violation would be the bittorent clients, which have to way to disable obeying the private bit. While one does have access to the source code, and can therefore modify this themselves, the software is designed with the explicit intention to remove the users freedom to dis-obey the private bit.

Adds are annoying, but do not affect any user freedoms.

EDIT: Discussion on ubuntuforums: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2060764

Here is a quote of a quote of the technology director of Canocial:

"Another addition is that we will be including Launcher web apps icons to Amazon and the Ubuntu One Music Store by default. We feel that these icons will provide convenient access to these resources for our users and also benefit the project with the generation of affiliate revenue in those cases that these resources are used. If our users choose to not use these Launcher icons, they can be easily removed by the user by dragging the icon to the trash."

I got that from the linked forum, but haven't searched the mailing lists to validate it.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#16

Post by jeffclark »

avolcano wrote: post #11

Honestly, if Ubuntu dropped their ridiculous, underdeveloped, undersupported Ubuntu One services and partnered with Amazon to integrate theirs (Cloud Player/Cloud Drive/etc), that would be a MAJOR improvement for both them and the end-user. Excellent cross-platform cloud services and marketplaces integrated with the OS would be great for bringing less-technical users to the platform in the wake of the proposed "Windo…

I've done partnership deals with Amazon's BD department before. They're very wary of just going head-first into a long-term deal without some kind of "feeling out" process to make sure the two companies are going to get along.

I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't their "feeling out" period before launching exactly what you're suggesting in a year or so.

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#18

Post by zoowar »

gizmo686 wrote: post #15
bashzor wrote: post #2

What the hell... I'll never use Ubuntu again. Or well, at least not for a while, even after it's removed. They call this "free software"?

How do pre-installed ads violate any free-software doctrine? One can still access/modify the source code of any part of the operating system (except proprietary drivers). It does not attempt to hinder a users ability to do anything with the computer. An example of a free-software violation would be the bittorent clients, which have to way to disable obeying the private bit. While one does have access to the source co…

Do Not Track

Re: Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed

#20

Post by manaskarekar »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #5

Still on 10.04, suppose I'll stay here a while. ps- Aadvertising Aardvark? Commercial Coelacanth?

That is my favorite Ubuntu release. I was on it for the longest period till last month when I shifted to Lubuntu 12.04. I have lost out on a few things, but I was getting tired of hunting for alternate sources of software for their latest version.

Lubuntu 12.04 is unbelievably good. Everything works out of the box and it just stays out of your way. You can choose Openbox at the login screen too. Highly recommended.

Post reply on HN