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Fix Ubuntu

fixubuntu.com

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Re: Fix Ubuntu

#131

Post by stolio »

rlpb wrote: 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 needs of our users and the free software community. We will place their interests first in our priorities." Note the lack of a profit motive as compared to Canonical's continuous search for monetization schemes.

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. Ubuntu has intentionally made itself a "My First Linux" distro so many of its users are new to the idea of software freedom and are in need of guidance.

2b) EULA's are no excuse. Did you know that using Adobe Flash prevents you from working on GNU Gnash? It was in the EULA you agreed to. [1] Everything's confusing during your first *nix experience, the average person probably has a mental list of a dozen things that don't make sense, that's a questionable time to get people to sign off on privacy compromises.

3) Blurring the lines between local and global is interesting. Blurring the lines between Open Source and spyware is not. [2]

[0] - http://www.debian.org/social_contract [1] - http://www.gnashdev.org/?q=node/25#eula [2] - http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#132

Post by philjackson »

nisa wrote: 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…

    apt-get purge friends
:(

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#133

Post by l337n1nj4 »

zx2c4 wrote: post #117
klrr wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux Mint? Isn't that essentially the same thing as Ubuntu or am I missing something? That is, is it the lens search that is the problem or are there other privacy concerns about Ubuntu?

I think they've got an edition based on Debian.

You are correct, sir/madam/whomever....

http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#134

Post by dinkumthinkum »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #87
mdeslaur wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's supposed to disable it completely.

supposed to What's with the ambiguity? Does it disable it or not? I feel silly for asking, but the question was about ambiguous language, so the reply was ironic.

I have to agree with another commenter ... It's not NSA level ambiguity ... It is open source, go check it if you don't believe it! :)

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#135

Post by l337n1nj4 »

japhyr wrote: post #100
sandGorgon wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

here's mine - http://www.lambdacurry.com/super-fast-lean-ubuntu-setup/ It removes Unity and switches to gnome-shell, removes nautilus and other stuff and replaces it with nemo, geany, etc. I do have some additional tweaks to improve wifi, etc. but the base install brings my RSS with firefox (I consider that a minimum) to about 500 mb on 12.04

I'm an emacs person myself, but when I teach Python I have students install Geany. I love it for working with beginners. I'm curious, what do you use Geany for?

Geany is a great IDE, but for Python, I've learned to love Ninja IDE:

ninja-ide.org

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#136

Post by bcj »

rlpb wrote: post #105
alcari wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. That still doesn't make it a privacy violation, since you know where your searches are going (as does any other user, since it's obvious based on the results). > Why should Amazon know what programs and files I'm using? It makes the normal user's life more convenient since he doesn't need to figure out which box to type something…

I don't think its a privacy violation, and Canonical has been open about their actions, but I think it's a crummy setup.

On my mac, both spotlight and alfred (the 3rd-party application launcher I use) are capable of searching both my computer and the web, and neither send my file searches to the internet.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#137

Post by DannyBee »

rlpb wrote: post #20
panarky wrote: post #2

"In case you are either 1) a complete idiot; or 2) a lawyer; or 3) both, please be aware that this site is not affiliated with or approved by Canonical Limited." "This site criticizes Canonical for certain privacy-invading features of Ubuntu and teaches users how to fix them. So, obviously, the site is not approved by Canonical." "And our use of the trademarked term Ubuntu is plainly descriptive—it helps the public f…

> "And our use of the trademarked term Ubuntu is plainly descriptive—it helps the public find this site and understand its message." I disagree. askubuntu.com already exists and is officially sanctioned. From domain name alone, I think it's reasonable to assume that users will believe that fixubuntu.com is also officially sanctioned. Traffic generated by users being misled into going there is not legitimate in terms…

" Traffic generated by users being misled into going there is not legitimate in terms of the trademark."

FixUbuntu is a very very very very clear case of nominative fair use.

I can't think of a less close case in recent memory. They are using the trademark as it should be used - to describe the product they are talking about.

The fact that Ubuntu may not like what they are saying makes no difference. The disclaimer makes clear it's not associated, and they don't pretend, anywhere, that they are associated.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#138

Post by ewzimm »

nisa wrote: 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…

If you are using 12.04, you can easily switch to a completely free Trisquel 6, which is based on 12.04 and compatible with PPAs and other software designed for Ubuntu.

http://trisquel.info/en/wiki/migrate-ubuntu-trisquel-without...

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#139

Post by nivla »

cs702 wrote: 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…

This reminds me of "whoopsie" when I first came across it after upgrading my servers to 12.04. Its a program that resides in the ram, automatically homes in the crash reports and would have to be explicitly disabled. At first I din't mind, but after watching it eat through my ram I had it disabled. As far as privacy goes, who knows what those sent in memory dumps might have.

Re: Fix Ubuntu

#140

Post by Karunamon »

jenius wrote: post #59
Pxtl wrote: post #16

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

While I see why people are unhappy with the sale of their data and ads, I have to agree with you on this. While obviously I don't enjoy having my information collected and sold without me really knowing by default, they do need to get money somehow. I feel like we're in a weird transitional period where the "free internet" in which all major apps and services we used were VC funded and growing, completely free with n…

Somehow, every other publicly available Linux distro doesn't need to include spyware in order to do their job.
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