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Canonical Begins Tracking Ubuntu Installations

Posted by Soulskill on from the following-bitprints-and-scrapes-on-the-router dept.

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."

53 of 548 comments (clear)

  1. Phone home? by Zumbs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Phone home? by RabbitWho · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're giving me a free OS. This is the least I can do for them.

      --
      it's under construction
    2. Re:Phone home? by JustOK · · Score: 5, Insightful

      no, you could do less.

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    3. Re:Phone home? by Zumbs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As such, I don't mind either. I would probably let the feature stay enabled. But I do want easy access (no code digging) to see what information is being collected, who gets access to it and an easy way of turning the feature off. And I would consider it a courtesy if Canonical actually asked me.

      --
      The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head
    4. Re:Phone home? by MancunianMaskMan · · Score: 2, Informative

      it does, but it's not good for collecting stats because organisations have their own private repositories (to save bandwidth, for one). You could set it up at home too if you have two or three Ubuntu machines, only one needs to fetch the packages from t'internet.

    5. Re:Phone home? by FudRucker · · Score: 3, Interesting

      the slashdot submission summary says it is a cronjob, it would be easy to look in /etc/cron.* and remove the entries for it, check Top for any running dameons for it, and remove the binary from /bin /sbin /usr/bin /usr/sbin (where they installed it) or apt-get remove "package_name" could do it all for you automagically

      --
      Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    6. Re:Phone home? by MMC+Monster · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Your definition of easy differs from my mom's. ;-)

      --
      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
    7. Re:Phone home? by Proteus+Child · · Score: 2, Informative

      Just use Synaptic to uninstall the canonical-census package and be done with it.

      --

      Proteus' Child

      Doko ni datte; hito wa, tsunagette iru.

    8. Re:Phone home? by InsertWittyNameHere · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm also ok with it. As long as they don't give it a deceptive name like "Ubuntu Genuine Advantage"

    9. Re:Phone home? by interval1066 · · Score: 2

      Yes, Canonical could have done a better disclosure job. Never the less, once you know one of the several ways of turning it off, I don't believe its a problem. Editing the crontab is probably one of the easiest things to do on a unix-like system.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    10. Re:Phone home? by PRMan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wouldn't it be easier to remove the canonical-census package?

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    11. Re:Phone home? by natehoy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Canonical could have done a better disclosure job.

      It hasn't happened yet, so it's tough to assess whether they "could have done" a better disclosure job until, you know, there is a need for disclosure.

      They've put a package in the repos that you have to go out and install (if it's even on all the mirrors yet). If you go and install it yourself, then obviously it's been disclosed to you, and you want to stand up and be counted. If you don't want to be counted (or you are unaware that the package exists), you won't be installing it and you don't need to be informed of anything.

      Once they start putting this on OEM installs, or in the default distro, then we can talk about how much disclosure was done, and whether they "should have done" more.

      We aren't there yet. I don't know what Canonical intends for a communication before, or even if, they ever decide to make this a default install. Maybe it'll be an option on the installer or a first-run question on OEM installs. Maybe it'll be disabled by default and they'll mention it on the distro home page and ask you to enable it. Or maybe they'll sneak it in and turn it on and they'll then be subject to a valid and reasonable accusation of insufficient disclosure.

      But that's all stuff that hasn't happened yet. Let's wait until it does, and keep an eye on Canonical and this package, so we're ready for our nerdragegasm when one is appropriate.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
    12. Re:Phone home? by gorzek · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Mod parent up!

      I can't believe how many people are already jumping to conclusions and deciding that Canonical is as evil as Microsoft. Come on, people!

      When it comes with the default installation and is enabled automatically without any input from the user, then it would be fair to trash Canonical for invading the privacy of its users. For now, they haven't actually done anything, and frankly I get tired of the reactionary nonsense hurled by Linux users on stories like these.

      I find it very difficult to get worked up about a counter that pings a remote server once a day just to count up how many active installations there are and how long they've been running. Some "privacy invasion." As long as Canonical is up front about what the package does and they do not enable it without your permission I don't see a problem here.

      --
      Check out my world simulator thingy.
    13. Re:Phone home? by Kitkoan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, Canonical could have done a better disclosure job. Never the less, once you know one of the several ways of turning it off, I don't believe its a problem. Editing the crontab is probably one of the easiest things to do on a unix-like system.

      Turning it off? Its not installed by default. I just made sure it my Ubuntu 10.04 was updated and then checked up the canonical-census was installed. Its not, in fact I have to go out of my way to 1) know it exists and then 2) install it on my own through the Synaptic Package Manager (I couldn't find it with a quick look in the Ubuntu Software Center). Most basic users won't install it since they tend to avoid the package manager, and even when you do find it in the package manager it has this as it's description:

      send "I am alive" ping to Canonical

      This package installs a daily cron job for surveying how many original OEM installs are running in the world. Note that this does not send any user specific data; it only transmits the operating system version (/var/lib/ubuntu_dist_channel), the machine product name, and a counter how many pings were sent.

      Maybe in the future if it becomes pre-installed we might have an issue, but until then, its opt-in only.

      --
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  2. It's about time by unixcrab · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It seems like any kind of Linux usage statistics you see these days are just a load of hot air. Hopefully this will provide some solid data and hopefully Canonical will make it public. I for one will happily enable it.

    1. Re:It's about time by quantumphaze · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      Also send them to hardware companies that seemingly sabotage any attempt to write Linux drivers.

      --
      Unicode in Slashdot
    2. Re:It's about time by Missing.Matter · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:It's about time by John+Hasler · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > They'll look at the numbers and think "hm, just as low as I thought"...

      Regardless of what the numbers actually are.

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      Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
    4. Re:It's about time by kabloom · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Debian Popularity Context already provides some of the same kinds of statistics. They ask at installation time whether you want to participate, and I think the interface is evenly weighted between opt-in and opt-out, so the users may be somewhat self-selected.

  3. Calm down! It's OEM only. by F0Cus · · Score: 2, Informative

    For a second , I really thought Canonical lost their minds... However further reading indicates this is only an OEM measure. That is, providers such as HP,DELL,ACER,etc... will engage with Canonical to provide usage data. What provoked my knee-jerk comment above was what would be so contriving to try and count the actual number of individual new download->installs on any given platform/OS release; we'd all be writing scripts to steer it in a different direction. Yeah, kinda like US Elections.

    **hick**

    --
    Leave me alone, I'm drunk.
  4. OEM only by ThoughtMonster · · Score: 5, Informative

    The summary (conveniently?) left out the part where it says that this package is only included on OEM installations, not normal installs.

    1. Re:OEM only by The+Mighty+Buzzard · · Score: 2, Informative

      And the repository for those who've heard of it and are feeling helpful.

      --
      Violence is like duct tape. If it doesn't solve the problem, you didn't use enough.
  5. Ubuntu already had popularity-content in place by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The popularity-content package in Debian and Ubuntu already existed, and collected information on the amount of submitters and the packages installed.
    See http://popcon.ubuntu.com/ for the summary of that collected information. So the claim that there has not been such tracking measures in place earlier is not quite true.

    1. Re:Ubuntu already had popularity-content in place by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Fedora has had Smolt since Fedora 7 as well. And based on what most /.ers are posting, it addresses all the issues they have with this sort of thing. When you first boot up Fedora it asks you if you'd like to send hardware information to the Fedora servers and it shows all the information that would be sent.

      You can also look at their install statistics here:
      https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Statistics

  6. Not a problem... by Gordonjcp · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... just don't compile it with "--enable-become-skynet" and you'll be fine.

  7. way to bait... by moogord · · Score: 3, Informative

    Of note to your interests. something that was skillfully left out of this slashdot article but is mentioned many times over and over in the original article. its only installed on OEM installations. the ones that are customized by canonical for use by oems. its not enabled/installed on your ubuntu install if you just download ubuntu or upgrade. geez...

    1. Re:way to bait... by jginspace · · Score: 2, Informative

      O... mentioned many times over and over in the original article. its only installed on OEM installations. the ones that are customized by canonical for use by oems. its not enabled/installed on your ubuntu install if you just download ubuntu or upgrade. geez...

      The article *doesn't* mention over and over. It *speculates* - once - that this is for OEMs. It can't be enabled or disabled on any Ubuntu download as the package is only 14 hours old.

  8. Test Your Bias! by gravos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Test your Free Software bias! If this article had the following summary, would you react differently?

    "Just released as part of the latest patch Tuesday for Windows 7 (and we imagine it will appear shortly in Windows Server, too) is a new feature called microsoft-census, which marks its initial release. Curious about what this feature provides, we did some digging and found it's for tracking Windows installations by sending an 'I am alive' ping to Microsoft on a daily basis. When the microsoft-census update is installed, the program is to be added to the daily scheduled tasks to be executed so that each day it will report to Microsoft over HTTP the number of times this system previously sent to Microsoft (this counter is stored locally and with it running on a daily basis it's thereby indicating how many days the Windows 7 installation has been active), the Microsoft distributor channel, the product name as acquired by the system's DMI information, and which Windows release is being used. That's all that microsoft-census does, at least for now. Previously there haven't been such Windows tracking measures attempted by Microsoft."

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    1. Re:Test Your Bias! by Walter+White · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

  9. why not if its optional by blackest_k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'll let it run at least initially, I am curious as to how many people run ubuntu and where (to at least the country level). If ordinary users can access that information I will be happy enough to run it on my systems.

    If that access isn't available then I won't.

     

    --
    Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
  10. Why is this news? by thue · · Score: 5, Informative

    Debian has a similar usage tracking package: http://popcon.debian.org/ .

    As long as such a package is only installed with the users consent, I don't see the problem.

    1. Re:Why is this news? by houghi · · Score: 2, Informative

      openSUSE also has this and it collects more data. It is used to see what hardware you run, among other things.
      And then there is Smolt that is used as well.

      openSUSE also gets a lot of information from their redirecting of download.opensuse.org.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    2. Re:Why is this news? by maztuhblastah · · Score: 2, Informative

      Debian has a similar usage tracking package: http://popcon.debian.org/ .

      Not quite. That's for tracking the popularity of individual packages, not the distro as a whole. (It's available for Ubuntu too, as it is for most Debian-derived distros.)

      Furthermore, it's not installed by default, (apparently) unlike the software that the article is about.

      --
      The real litigious bastards...
  11. If Microsoft did this... by Toreo+asesino · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...I wonder what the reaction would be on this site?

    --
    throw new NoSignatureException();
  12. NTP by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I thought that was the reason for the NTP server.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  13. Help! They're on to me. by Smivs · · Score: 2, Funny

    But I don't mind...proud to be a Linux user.

    --
    Smivs on the intertubes!
  14. At least.... by sipatha · · Score: 2, Informative

    ... we have sudo apt-get remove canonical-census

  15. Hyperbole much? by brunes69 · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's all that canonical-census does, at least for now. Previously there haven't been such Ubuntu tracking measures attempted by Canonical.

    First of all, this was announced public ally months ago. And it was posted to the front page of Slashdot no less.

    Second, the package is totally optional, and during the install there is a very clear option to not install it.

    I am getting sick of every story summary on here trying to be twisted into some giant conspiracy...

  16. Re:Dear god I hope this stops the impending wave by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  17. The solution for NOT installing certain packages by fuzzel · · Score: 5, Informative

    To make sure that no other packages like eg base-files suddenly start adding these kind of packages you might want to add to /etc/apt/preferences or prolly better a file like /etc/apt/preferences.d/dontwant something like:

    Package: avahi-daemon canonical-census
    Pin: release v=dontwant,a=dontwant
    Pin-Priority: 1001

    This will block two annoying packages that don't belong on most servers.

    avahi, because you don't need to announce everywhere when your server is located somewhere in a DC (indeed it might be handy in a local network, but it stops being useful when you don't have multicast routing and/or have a routed network)

    canonical-census, because Ubuntu does not need to know what your server is doing.

    Of course other packages can be blocked in a similar way from being auto-added by apt. (unfortunately a dpkg 'hold' does not work).

    Another way is to make a fake empty package, then the depends are satisfied, in the above case you might have packages which refuse to install because the package can't be found. Do make sure with 'apt-cache policy' to see if you don't have other apt-prefs at a prio of 1001 (or higher if that is possible) otherwise they might still get there.

    I am also wondering when Ubuntu/Redhat and other such commercial "Linux" companies start being nice to all the people who actually do the hard work and start acknowledging that those people are what they are selling/supporting/consulting on and earning money with.

    --
    http://unfix.org
  18. Re:Why? by zippthorne · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
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  19. I'm torn by mpeskett · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is this a good thing for creating verifiable stats on the number of users, or a bad thing because of the "phone home" behaviour.

    At least it's not doing this secretly...

  20. Re:Nae bother. by The+Mighty+Buzzard · · Score: 4, Funny

    Windows Millennium retail boxes were clearly marked and announced.

    --
    Violence is like duct tape. If it doesn't solve the problem, you didn't use enough.
  21. It's no worse than Update Manager by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My reaction to your postulated microsoft-census: "Doesn't Automatic Updates already do this?"

    1. Re:It's no worse than Update Manager by tepples · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My reaction to your reaction would be: why doesn't Ubuntu Update already do this?

      Each program on a *n?x system is supposed to do one thing and do it well. If it's just as easy to do this in a separate, purpose-built package instead of inside APT, then why do it in APT?

  22. WINE compatibility by voss · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:WINE compatibility by natehoy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Certain games work better under WINE than they do in Windows, though few of them are current-market games.

      I'm mostly referring to older adventure-type games that used things like Quicktime. My wife has an old favorite (Amber: Journeys Beyond) that we lost access to when we went to Windows XP, but I discovered recently that it is very well supported in Wine, and my wife was thrilled to have an old favorite back. We have a catalog of older games, many of which don't work in XP that I need to try out (Obsidian, Sanitarium, and a few other Myst-like games including the entire Myst series).

      There could actually be a market for some of these older games in Linux where none can possibly exist in Windows without costly redevelopment of the game. The software houses could sell them in their original form (no redevelopment costs, only pressing the discs) with a one-page installation FAQ and milk a little more cash out of them with almost no effort.

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    2. Re:WINE compatibility by Anon-Admin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I always find it funny when people set a number, "If you knew say you could add
      2 to 3 million potential customers"

      Some say, based on web site hits to non-geek sites, that linux is .5% of the hits so it is a small % of the total computer market. So lets take a quick look at that .5%

      As of 2004 there were an estimated 223,810,000 Personal computers. Note, these are not servers these are Personal computers for home use.

      So what is .5% of that you may ask?? (Came from a site that was a financial site geared towards 45-55 year old men)

      1,119,050 Linux desktops, Yep that little .5% is 1.1 million users!!

  23. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  24. Re:From the article by John+Hasler · · Score: 2, Insightful

    > 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.

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  25. This is not exactly true by Bruha · · Score: 2, Informative

    I was part of a group of people who were working on the Ubuntu tracker that tracked packages installed, and one that reported the hardware the installation detected. Both of those tools could easily signal active installations just by seeing the updates from the package installer while the second probably would only report on new hardware. While this new package does something different, I'm not convinced that it actually serves a purpose to the end users. I'm no longer part of those discussions anymore, but this only seems to serve the makers of Ubuntu to see if their efforts are being used.

  26. Re:Good for games by Avuserow · · Score: 2, Informative

    You want Smolt. It's opt-in, and the collected data ends up at smolts.org.

  27. Game developers should develop for a profit by falconwolf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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

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