Will you be counting Fedora users? [LWN.net]

Will you be counting Fedora users?

Posted Oct 12, 2006 9:32 UTC (Thu) by chema (subscriber, #32636)
Parent article: How many Fedora users are there?

Counting through Firefox will only give the amount of people that use Fedora's Firefox. I suppose that not everyone that use Fedora use Firefox. Fox example, I do not use Firefox, even I don't remember last time I start Firefox. I use Galeon (and sometimes Opera) instead. How will I be tracked?
(Obviously, I have no concerns of being counted :))

Rgds.
--
Chema

(Log in to post comments)

Always about counting transparently

Posted Oct 13, 2006 14:31 UTC (Fri) by quaid (guest, #26101) [Link]

Just to make one other set of things clear:

* For the new release, the Fedora Documentation Project produced a new, useful page at /usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html. This is where the release notes are traditionally displayed. Instead, the new page links to various useful information for (mainly new) users, including the release notes (in all languages available). It was this, already existing page in rawhide/CVS where we were asked to affix a counting image ... and explanation text. No one ever seriously suggested hiding it. In fact, we could have just used a Fedora logo sourced from fedoraproject.org on the page, made no mention that loading the image would *gasp* make a mark in an Apache access log, and no one would have been the wiser. Aren't you glad no one is an evil bastard like that? :)

* Firefox is configured in Fedora to use /usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html as the default homepage. Upgrading users have probably already switched their default homepage.

* The mock-up page that included an image sourced from fedoraproject.org had text wrapped around the image that explained everything, including links to more information, and showed the image as a 10x10 box. Nothing hidden, no secrets.

So, IF the counting image had been implemented, then any Web browser that hit file:///usr/local/doc/HTML/index.html would have pulled down the counting image in a very obvious way.

It was a cheap, easy way to get a very rough idea of desktop usage (no browsers on a non-X using server, right?) as opposed to overall usage. The idea came at the last minute because we had just decided to change /usr/share/doc/HTML between test3 and release, and someone had a brainstorm, "Hey, why don't we just ..." But it was perceived from the very first moment as a potential concern to people without clue who might think it was about nefarious tracking.

The rest of the stuff about funding and such is pure FUD. If you get from the LWN article that "Red Hat is abandoning Fedora AGAIN!", then you failed to read correctly, and certainly didn't read any of the sources for the story. Go back and read the entire set of threads on fedora-docs-list and fedora-advisory-board if you are truly concerned. Otherwise, please don't let reporters for LWN do your thinking for you.

Now, let's get back to worrying about actual privacy concerns.