this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
569 points (96.3% liked)
Linux
46775 readers
2113 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Wait wait, have we been lied to.. Does linux actually collect telemetry?
Too lazy to click, but it's probably browser data. By default pretty much all browsers report OS info while browsing.
The intent is to ensure compatibility with the sites, and it's also used to push relevant info to the front, e.g., going to the "download" page and having the first download link be a .deb instead of .exe.
It's unfortunately also used as part of the data collected for browser "fingerprinting" so it can be a touchy subject and may get spoofed by some users, leading to erroneous data, but in aggregate it can be used to give a general sense of OS and browser market share for studies like this.
They detect this from browsers, it's not really accurate. For example, if you're using LibreWolf, they'll detect you as Windows 10.
Which just means the real number is likely higher since Windows browsers are almost certainly not getting counted as Linux
Probably not. The majority of users use chrome or whatever their os comes with. There are edge cases but it would be the minority that think about privacy and such.
I'm to lazy to worry about tracking so I install ublock, enable do not track in the settings of Firefox, and call it a day.
It is probably more likely that a Linux users is detected incorrectly, but the percentage of users doing something to cause this is almost certainly small enough to ignore.
Thats what i thought, you can easily modify useragents
It's browser data, not telemetry.
Ubuntu does
Good guy Ubuntu puts us on the radar.
If you install edge!