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Canonical Begins Tracking Ubuntu Installations
suraj.sun passes along this excerpt from Phoronix:
"Just uploaded to the Ubuntu Lucid repository for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (and we imagine it will appear shortly in Maverick too for Ubuntu 10.10) is a new package called canonical-census, which marks its initial release. Curious about what this package provides, we did some digging and found it's for tracking Ubuntu installations by sending an 'I am alive' ping to Canonical on a daily basis. When the canonical-census package is installed, the program is to be added to the daily Cron jobs to be executed so that each day it will report to Canonical over HTTP the number of times this system previously sent to Canonical (this counter is stored locally and with it running on a daily basis it's thereby indicating how many days the Ubuntu installation has been active), the Ubuntu distributor channel, the product name as acquired by the system's DMI information, and which Ubuntu release is being used. That's all that canonical-census does, at least for now. Previously there haven't been such Ubuntu tracking measures attempted by Canonical."
While I fully understand that Canonical would like some reliable statistical information on users, I seriously hope that it will be easy to see what information is sent and opt out ... or even better ... opt in (ie. default is off).
The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head
You missed the most important information... probably because mentioning it wouldn't make the story as interesting as it sounds. Is it installed by default? Is there a notice? Is there a toggle button to install it during installation?
Could lead to useful statistics. Dunno why this is being made into such a big deal. Even though it sounds very much like MS Windows phoning home, both have two different objectives. Nothing to see here. Move on.
...thus giving a convenient database of computer availability and movement.
The good news for those concerned about privacy is that it appears for now Canonical is just interested in tracking the users of OEM installations -- those PCs that ship with Ubuntu by default such as from ZaReason, System76, and Dell.
I'm sorry, what? Why is this good news? This sentence makes as much sense as, "The good news for those interested in peaceful action is that the sniper is only interested in targetting the Dutch."
For those not wanting to participate in this anonymous data gathering process, they could always sudo apt-get remove canonical-census.
Yeah, you can always opt-out of spam too.
...I wonder what the reaction would be on this site?
throw new NoSignatureException();
I thought that was the reason for the NTP server.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I know!
Through a security flaw, MS discovers the Canonical DB, thus earning a unit count of "enemies"!
The entire point of Linux is the philosophy. There's other choices for the "Just-Works" proprietary synergies.
Is Canonical getting to that "power corrupts" stage?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Why should the details of the article negate the fact that this is a privacy issue, and there should be an outcry about it? Does the fact that its only happening against a subset of installs matter? Not really. Does the fact that there is an *opt-out* option? Again, not really, as its tracking usage - this should be opt-in for definite.
Yeah. It probably is something they can bargain with. Namely, it can be used to counter the claim that the people buying the machines are just wiping them to put pirated windows on.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
They should send the usage statistics to the mailing addresses of all the big name game developers so we can finally get rid of Windows.
They'll look at the numbers and think "hm, just as low as I thought" and then continue to develop exclusively for windows.
My reaction to your postulated microsoft-census: "Doesn't Automatic Updates already do this?"
> They'll look at the numbers and think "hm, just as low as I thought"...
Regardless of what the numbers actually are.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
While Linux native code would be nice, just getting popular games working properly
in WINE on linux would be a great start. If you knew say you could add
2 to 3 million potential customers with compatiblity code tweaks...that would be worth it to
many companies.
World of Warcraft and EVE online are two games that have great WINE compatiblity,
and there are sufficient linux users for both that they have their own forums
on the gamemakers sites.
What does Windows Genuine Advantage do in this regard? Doesn't it periodically contact Microsoft?
And AFAIK you are not able to opt out. If you do not comply, it is my understanding that your computer will cease to operate.
> Just saying before the shit hits the fan.
Too late for that. It's always too late for that on Slashdot. There are monkeys here who crap in their hands and throw it at the fan.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
That applies in everything. Looking at CrossOver money is being made now with Linux and OSX. If CodeWeavers can make money with CrossOver then software vendors should be able to make money creating cross platform software too.
On the other hand, game developers would have a semi-solid set of numbers to go by, so they can assess the size of their potential market. As it is, there really aren't good numbers on Linux adoption
Even with this there still will not be good numbers. First, Canonical is only including the tracking software on OEM installations but I bet most installations are done by users or local gurus. It is not mandatory either. Then there are other Linux distros.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?