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Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Posted Dec 7, 2012 23:07 UTC (Fri) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784)
In reply to: Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do? by el_presidente
Parent article: Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

He seems to be out of touch with reality. If a person is going to search for something it's usually something on the network.

I don't think you should be so eager to point the finger, either about who may or may not be in touch with reality, or whether it is normal to search the network or not if you are searching for something.

Certainly, if I use locate to search for something, I don't expect it to run off to Amazon, Google, or some "App Store" to give me "helpful" advice about programs or files I might want to buy or download, if all I need to know is where a certain file is on my system, and I don't see how a "desktop search" function should be any different.

In fact, Ubuntu 12.10 already gives hints about uninstalled programs at the command line (and here was I thinking that the "spoof" bug reports about this controversy were joking about some future feature), but this might well be based on a locally installed index inverted over the dpkg -S data, but I foresee a time when it too queries some "App Store" or other to be more "helpful".

Personally, I think the Ubuntu people should just focus on delivering a reliable product instead of trying to "monetize" every click and key-press.


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Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Posted Dec 8, 2012 0:35 UTC (Sat) by raven667 (subscriber, #5198) [Link]

> Personally, I think the Ubuntu people should just focus on delivering a reliable product instead of trying to "monetize" every click and key-press.

They have to survive to do that and it is difficult to survive without money, in some form or another. Even volunteer effort is paid for by a "day job" and so indirectly by an employeer.

Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Posted Dec 8, 2012 6:15 UTC (Sat) by allesfresser (subscriber, #216) [Link]

Hmm, Debian seems to have survived without this kind of nonsense, and survived quite nicely.

Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Posted Dec 8, 2012 16:37 UTC (Sat) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link]

Are you saying all the Debian developers are unemployed? Or are you misunderstanding the previous comment.

Okay, I'm unemployed :-( but people can't work for nothing at all. They'd starve. And I strongly suspect that, even if the Debian developers aren't paid to write for Debian (and many probably are), they ARE paid to develop software.

Cheers,
Wol

Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Posted Dec 10, 2012 12:03 UTC (Mon) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link]

There's a difference between being paid by a sustainable business model that respects the customer and one that monetizes every click and key-press, however.

Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Posted Dec 8, 2012 3:02 UTC (Sat) by imgx64 (guest, #78590) [Link]

> In fact, Ubuntu 12.10 already gives hints about uninstalled programs at the command line (and here was I thinking that the "spoof" bug reports about this controversy were joking about some future feature), but this might well be based on a locally installed index inverted over the dpkg -S data, but I foresee a time when it too queries some "App Store" or other to be more "helpful".

You mean this: http://packages.debian.org/stable/main/command-not-found ?

Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Posted Dec 8, 2012 5:39 UTC (Sat) by deepfire (subscriber, #26138) [Link]

Yes, this is another example, and guess what -- it is opt-in in Debian, and yes, opt-out in Ubuntu.

Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Posted Dec 8, 2012 5:42 UTC (Sat) by deepfire (subscriber, #26138) [Link]

I wish I wasn't in such a hurry to reply..

As it stands, there's no effective privacy-related difference between Debian and Ubuntu here. It seems.

Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Posted Dec 11, 2012 13:42 UTC (Tue) by micka (subscriber, #38720) [Link]

In my opinion, opt-in v.s. opt-out is privacy related, and is quite effective.

command-not-found

Posted Dec 8, 2012 18:22 UTC (Sat) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link]

... and similar software is included in Fedora, again by default in newer versions. You can uninstall the package, or if it bothers you but not other users on the same machine you can tell bash not to run the handler.

Stallman: Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Posted Dec 9, 2012 11:04 UTC (Sun) by misc (subscriber, #73730) [Link]

For now, the system use the local indexes of apt/yum/whatever to tell you where is the package you tried to use. There is so far no privacy issue, as this doesn't leave your computer.

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