Slashdot Mirror
Ubuntu 13.04 Will Allow Instant Purchasing, Right From the Dash
sfcrazy writes "Ubuntu is becoming a shopping center. Instead of addressing the queries raised by Stallman and the EFF, Canonical is now pushing for making Ubuntu a shopping cart. With Ubuntu 13.04 Canonical is going one step forward, and soon you will be able to purchase software and music right from the Dash without opening the software center or web browser.This is intended to make the whole experience even more interactive and useful for the end user."
As the Canonical developer's Unity DE shows, Canonical is not really that interested in the opinions of its current users.
... you can just download another distro. Because it's Linux and Linux comes in more flavors than ice cream. Heck if you don't like any of the flavors, make your own. No need to log on Slashdot and moan and cry about how terrible Ubuntu is and how much it reminds you of them terrible yanks uppin Micro$oft yonder, because you don't know anyway. You wouldn't come within 1000 feet of it, right? You despise it, you loathe it, yes? Good.
Ubuntu would make more money by moving towards Red Hats model of licensing instead of their (outrageous) support hours. Their cost model for enterprise support is a huge reason my workplace won't use them.
"When the user searches her own local files for a string using the Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu sends that string to one of Canonical's servers. (Canonical is the company that develops Ubuntu.)" from -> http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/07/1527225/rms-speaks-out-against-ubuntu
* Says all I needed to see... & though Mr. Stallman MAY be a wee bit "odd" in some things he does or has done or said? He's not "off" here... no way.
APK
P.S.=> Thus, I suppose the next time I try Linux, it will be MINT vs. KUbuntu (my former favorite)...
... apk
It's one of those polarizing subjects. Some see absolutely no problem with this kind of thing, whilst others are mortified by it and can't understand why everyone else is ok with it. Both sides call each other idiots who "just don't get it" for whatever reason, no ones opinion changes, and life goes on.
All purchases will require the use of BitCoin.
How they want to compile it is their choice. That's the entire point of open source.
From the Canonical Blog Post on the new feature:
Privacy is extremely important to Canonical. The data we collect is not user-identifiable (we automatically anonymize user logs and that information is never available to the teams delivering services to end users), we make users aware of what data will be collected and which third party services will be queried through a notice right in the Dash, and we only collect data that allows us to deliver a great search experience to Ubuntu users. We also recognize that there is always a minority of users who prefer complete data protection, often choosing to avoid services like Google, Facebook or Twitter for those reasons – and for those users, we have made it dead easy to switch the online search tools off with a simple toggle in settings.
So while I think the privacy concerns with sending data to Canonical when you'e doing searches is significant, so long as the user is aware and has the option, more power to them. I don't think I want to integrate my desktop and network search, but I certainly see a mass market that may want this. Depending upon how easy it is to create and configure these "scopes" to plug into this system it might be a great way to build customized searching without the need for Google to know everything about me.
I think people are too reactionary when it comes to both privacy and commercialism. From the previous posts you'd think this was a mandatory feature and Canonical was selling user data or something. They seem to be responsible players here creating cool tech that some of us may not want. I see nothing for me to get upset about.
For each of such change we're seeing in Ubuntu, people are coming back to Debian. Welcome back!
HI bsd!
In other news...
If Canonical becomes that much unfriendly, some users will be encouraged to setup a light daemon generating a multiple of random queries for each real ones. Then Canonical will try to filter out the noise, and the escalation with more clever scripts inundating their servers with trash will continue :)
This almost seems like a sick joke at this point. Not only are they loading up the system with advertising, but it's so poorly implemented at this point that Canonical is slowly becoming a caricature of modern software companies. What does anyone have to gain from this? When did opening a web browser and typing "amazon.com" become too much work? Have we reached the point where the only thing people want out of their computers is a shopping/advertising hub?
Seriously, this fails on so many levels that I'm completely baffled. This is supposed to be a major new feature, but it obviously will become completely non-functional when you get disconnected from the net. Ignoring all the other problems, why is there a major OS-level feature that works COMPLETELY differently depending on whether or not you are connected to the internet? I'm trying but I can't find any way to stretch this so that it actually makes sense.
Heh. I wonder if BSDs are taking the crown of "alternative operating system" from Linux, while Linux becomes an actual mainstream thing.
Uh, current Ubuntu user here. I'm all for this.
Current Xubuntu user here (2 desktops, 2 laptops). I don't particularly care how Unity is distorted, other than remarking that this sort of thing ensures I stay away from it. We had Gnome 2 on all the PCs, but switched every one of them to xfce when both Unity and Gnome 3 showed their differing ugliness while testing them in a VM.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
It doesn't matter. The GPL lets them steal your code! That's why I use a CC-No Ubuntu license for all my projects.
I actually don't have much of a problem with this, but I really dislike them sending searches to Amazon by default. It should be an opt-in behaviour, not default.
"I wanted to update/install my nvidia drivers, so I opened the dash and typed "drivers". IT DISPLAYED GOLF CLUBS on sale at Amazon!"
Presumably the new version will buy them for you as well.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
By the way, here's how Jono Bacon responded to the criticism from Stallman.
> Canonical is not really that interested in the opinions of its current users ..
If not satisfied, then why not ask for your money back ..
AccountKiller
I read through the whole thing and I can tell you that he said nothing at all. No reason for the decision, no address of the privacy concerns, no nothing. He wrote a huge page of politician dribble.
What a whiny non-response from Jono Bacon. His counter argument to Stallman is: [summarized] "Privacy is personal, there is only one RMS who cares about privacy in his own way, so we can collect your data. Look at Facebook and Apple: see, we're better!".
The community is fine with new features and trying out new things, but we just want the defaults to be sane. Only turn on Amazon searches or Canonical feedback as an op-in mechanism. A default install of any gnu/linux distro should be privacy-aware and not require disabling any features.
I'll say this before and I'll say it again, if you haven't ditched Ubuntu for Mint, now is the time
http://linuxmint.com/
Its also funny to note that install base of Ubuntu has taken a nose dive in the last year(two?). with mint taking up the slack.
I wonder why.
It's essentially the same to use as Ubuntu 10 -- the last version before all the Unity crap, crippled Gnome and spyware commercializing -- plus, the software and updates are carefully vetted and upgrades are not so annoyingly frequent. And, of course, there's none of this commercialization BS.
I've been running it in a VM to prepare for the switch and it will be soon.
A default install of any gnu/linux distro should be privacy-aware and not require disabling any features.
Minor nitpick: This should apply to all software, hardware and (web) services not just GNU/Linux distros.
Can't wait until Ubuntu starts altering grep and find to start using libcurl to report search terms to amazon. Maybe even return ads to a new IO stream: stdadvert.
Then keep your eye on Bug #1055766