I actually have some telemetry enabled on my system, cause I want the maintainers of my distro to have more data to base their decisions on. I always disable everything for proprietary software though, and I dislike opt-out systems.
this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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I only enable telemetry for software provided by nonprofit organizations that are legally obligated to publish detailed financial records. Never give anyone that reserves the right to sell you out any of the benefit of your data for free.
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If they ask nicely, maybe I will accept. The KDE guys have telemetry iirc, they get what they need.
Just why?
It's been really sad watching them shoot themselves in the foot like this. They seem bent on destroying their distro. Which was the first distro I really used on an old laptop after trying a few.
Man Ubuntu 16 those were the days.
It's also amazing they even try because a good percentage of Ubuntu users are likely knowledgeable tech users who like to stay aware of their software. Many of them are probably former or current Microsoft or Apple users who want to avoid big corporate OS systems because of creeping advertising.
Why? Because it's working, at least for now.
Canonical has pulled similar shit for years now. Remember the Amazon search integration? They do it again and again, yet most users stay.
And I know, someone will comment "but I totally ditched Ubuntu and my one friend did too!!!!", but how is Ubuntu still the most popular distribution? Finding snaps is easier than finding flatpacks or debs or rpms. Finding support is easier, etc. This might be just momentum, but until that is running out, it's working.
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Microsoft:
adding telemetry to the terminal.
(in a recent poweshell update)
with microsoft, it's everyday affair.
What??? For realsies???
This is the "ad". Personally, I don't think a little plug like this is worth any kind of fuss. If it were a real ad or something, then yea I would get it.
An ad is an ad and this definitely is an ad. This is the kind of shit that made me quit Windows and it would make me quit Ubuntu if I was using it.
This. Any unsollicited communication that's meant to make you investigate or buy a commercial product is an advertisement. That's all. Is it less intrusive than the TikTok ad in Windows start menu, I think it may be, but it's still an advertisement, by definition.
Is it less intrusive
For me it is, I would've never ever expected an ad on cli, on a local install, on my machine.
Logged into an ec2 and see an advert? Sure. But not on my own shit. It's a true "ah fuck I can't believe you've done this" factor.
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I think this is the best take. This alone if it went nowhere is fairly harmless.
But I think we know what it really is, is the start of a slippery slope.
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While I'm not bothered by this in particular, like other people have said, it feels like the top of a very slippery slope that I would be bothered by
That's pretty much how I feel about it. This specific method is alright by me, but it could very easily become something intrusive.
It is a real ad though...
Technically, but it's coming from the same servers your packages are being downloaded from, right?
I don't think that's from a server but instead it's baked into apt. Or some post-install trigger.
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this plus the snap crap they've been doing was enough for me to switch to Debian
I went through the entire cycle.
- Ubuntu
- Pop_OS!
- Mint
- Manjaro
- Arch
- Fedora
And finally I’m at Debian.
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I've been getting ads like these for years on my ubuntu server.
n additional security updates can be applied with ESM Apps.
Learn more about enabling ESM Apps service at https://ubuntu.com/esm
This is on a machine running 20.04. Never bothered me. All my other machines are Debian now, and at some point I'll switch that one too.
Yeah, plus given you can get pro for free it really seems more like a announcement than an ad. Slippery slope though.
Yeah, this isn't that bad. It's just a suggestion after running an apt upgrade. NPM has similar plugs which I don't find too annoying.
In fact its not even as intrusive as NPM's funding requests, as it is only 2 lines of text, plus it looks like Ubuntu Pro is free for personal use.
I see a lot of people comment that this isn’t that bad and that it might even be acceptable, and that’s exactly the problem here: it’s a gateway drug and if we normalise this, Canonical will keep pushing the limits of what they can pull off before it’s not acceptable anymore, and that sounds when it’s too late.
I agree that I wouldnt call that an ad, but it's a pretty distasteful plug
This is not what I would consider an ad. I also remember seeing it only once
I mean.. It is literally an ad. I don't see how you could not consider it one. You could claim it doesn't bother you or isn't too intrusive or something, but it most certainly is an ad.
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Haven't kept up with Ubuntu, but I believe this. It's in line with Canonical's behavior. They are very corporaty
Kind of, they have announcements in the terminal sometimes and telemetry wont go out unless you confirm you want it to. I personally have it disabled, but its not invasive.
Looking at your history, you really hate Ubuntu u/RmDebArc_5, don't you?
I don’t hate Ubuntu, it used to be my favorite distro and I haven’t found anything that really replaces it. I hate Canonical for destroying my favorite distro
Debian 12 is the best destination after Ubuntu if you're switching because you hate stupid Canonical things. I switched a few months ago and it was really easy and has been awesome.
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Telemetry is significantly less invasive than on windows or Mac, and is completely optional during installation, after which you will never be asked to turn it on again
Damn, guess I should go back to Windows /s
what telemetry?
Which version of Ubuntu you’re installing (including which flavour), Whether you have network connectivity, Hardware stats, including CPU, RAM, GPU, etc, Your device vendor (e.g., Dell, Lenovo, etc), Your country (based on the time zone you pick, not IP), How long your install took to complete, Whether you have auto login enabled, Your disk layout (how many hard drives and partitions you have), Whether you chose to install third party codecs, Whether you chose to download updates during install
(According to OMG!Ubuntu) Most distros offer optional telemetry, but Ubuntu’s is opt out not opt in (for GNOME you have to separately install the telemetry)
Ubuntu’s is opt out not opt in
I haven't installed ubuntu in a while, but in EU you need to have prior consent from the user to gather any kind of data and if I remember correctly I haven't seen such thing. And it's not enough to bury that into documentation and say 'if you use our software you allow us to blah blah', you must get consent via an action from the user which spesifically allows that, so if telemetry comes silently with 'apt dist-upgrade' it's not enough.
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Hannah Montana Linux, huh? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aotzo4tyvM4
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