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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