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Mark Shuttleworth Addresses Ubuntu Privacy Issues
sfcrazy writes "Mark Shuttleworth has for the first time talked about the privacy issues in Ubuntu Dash after being criticized by EFF and FSF. He mentioned some changes in the way use can 'disable' the search results. However the company has showed that under no circumstances they will disable the online search by default as demanded by EFF and FSF. Shuttleworth was simply spinning the wheel moving things around to give an impression that something has been done where as the core problem remains — Dash sends keystrokes by default and legally every user agrees to send such keystrokes to PRODUCT.canonical.com server to be shared with partners like Facebook."
127.0.0.1 product.canonical.com
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
All that will happen is people will move to fedora or mint or countless other Linux distros.
Mark, if you want to make some money try selling something worthwhile. Games would be one idea, hell get steam to give you a cut if you make installation of steam optional during OS install. Selling users data is a bad idea.
It amazes me that when somebody does something as a business that it infuriates people especially when they get something for free. Yes, Ubuntu is taking free software, wrapping it as a supportable bundle and distributing it. So now they've hooked into the information sharing arrangement. It's easy enough to disable as well and the hosts file solution is also there. I wonder if just charging $10 a download / dvd would make more sense then adding another keylogging data collector out there. Frankly Facebook is the worst and the network of data collectors it's partnered with is becoming more and more troublesome.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
get back to Slack
I would say that pretty much ends the usefulness of the Ubuntu line. Anyone who thinks that sending all my keystrokes to their server - which they can in turn sell off to third parties - is, in my not so humble opinion, bat fucking crazy.
You should not have to edit hosts files or anything else to make a product usable, because that product should not be spying on you from install forward. I do believe my personal response to Mark is a big "FUCK OFF AND DIE". End of story. End of Ubuntu.
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~
I think this situation can be resolved by viewing our search data as akin to the content we'd put online on a blog with a Google AdSense account attached.
If you're passing our data on to an end user, that user needs to pay for it, and thus this can't be a question of default settings but of a contract made between user and giant monolithic search engine company.
So if you don't like it, compile your own version that doesn't have the behavior you don't like, and install that.
Why do people use linux? To AVOID MALWARE.
I replaced Ubuntu with Mint when I was first confronted by Unity because I couldn't abide the new UI.
Sounds like that was the least of the reasons to go...
I was thinking that it's been a while and that I should have another look at how Unity has evolved, but not if they are reduced to doing this to stay in business.
I would expect a better effort to write a summary.
It is evident that the submitter is full of hate.
Just use another derivative like
Kubuntu. The privacy is there and the GUI is better!
An EULA is only lawful where it alludes to copyright protection.
The interception and broadcast of traffic is not a copyright issue as it is defined under existing wiretap laws.
Ubuntu is involved in a criminal interception program and key members should be arrested.
Canonical can have a good poke about in /home/gordonjcp if they think it'll help. Why?
Because I'm getting bombarded with advertising *anyway*.
If the adverts are going to be there then they may as well be for stuff I actually want, rather than constantly advertising pharmacies that will discreetly ship to the US without requiring a prescription (why would you want to buy drugs over the internet, never mind without a prescription?). If advertising stuff that I want to buy helps a company that I'd like to support but can't be bothered actually handing over cash to, then that's fine by me.
> We will aim to enforce this at the kernel level, hence
> the CC to Jamie S who leads our security team.
WTF? Why is that needed? To keep jr devs from accidentally re-enabling it? Or, in fine /. conspiratorial tradition, is the keylogging built into the kernel?!
~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.
RIP ubuntu now you're the evil empire of linux..
Parent is flamebaiting a bit, but I agree. There are no lack of Debian-based distros which don't come with the increasingly concerning baggage that Ubuntu is being bundled with. I retired my last Ubuntu machine about eight months ago and am Debian-only now.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
He only got a +3 so far?!?
for that information, I think he should get a +5 insightful for the next month even he's posting Goat.se links.
Mark Shuttleworth has devolved. He's decided to accept the definition of User as something other than Owner. He's raised the port cullis and thrown open the doors for third parties to hunt User metadata, revealing his allegiance, defaulting to a state of non-concern for the least among us.
I'm sure it's convenient for him to imagine he's still engaged in promoting Linux, but at what cost?
How much did he get for his soul? How much did he get for everyone else's?
You should have the choice!
I'm in the minority here because I really don't care about the advertising. Linux is for servers and development.
However the feature is astonishingly retarded. I'm trying to launch the console and it shows me "Console" the movie? WTF, why would anyone ever click on that? What else is there, "Spreadsheet" the movie? This is the worst advertising placement ever.
It would be another thing entirely if they only showed this stuff in a media query view. In fact iTunes and other media managers have a similar feature.
This. Ubuntu has jumped the shark so long ago. It lost what made it special. Why is anyone still using it?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This is the problem with "success" of open projects as they grow they require more and more money to continue to reinforce their expansion and it only snowballs downhill from there. Before you know it your out there selling your soul and your users data to the highest bidder. You can still reap profit on support alone but you can't expect it to support an organization of any size with fat paychecks for all doing this. There aint any shortage of corporate customers happily willing to purchase yearly support subscriptions whether they actually need it or use it.
Distributions put together by people who give a shit don't have this problem. The cost of packaging in time and effort is such a minsicule effort and mostly a solved problem contrasted with the effort required to produce operating system and software bundled with it.
What if bash maintainers decided they need more money too and decided to ship your keystrokes off to facebook as well? What if the maintainers of every one of the thousands of packages that go into a modern distribution followed suite? Spying by default is indefensible.
I use a couple of different Linux distros currently, many more in the past and also *BSD now.
What Ubuntu does that no one has done was make it easy for the user. The way Ubuntu does things is a Windows killer - if it weren't for the pre-installation of Windows on every fucking thing that's not Apple or handheld.
See, unlike everyother distro, when you install something on Ubuntu, it'll work (sample: everything I've installed) - and I mean using the distro's software manager - even Windows can't make that claim. Calibre for example. Updating Calibre on XP involves uninstalling and installing again; otherwise if you don't do the uninstall f the old version, when you run it, you get the old version. Ubuntu just upgrades with no hassles.
Ubuntu does have a user experience that is superior to every other distro out there - and I think they know it.
And don't get me started on how spell check for Slashdot on firefox foesn't work on Mint.
Gets turned into a marketing opportunity?
Rick B.
I had no idea this was going on..... I do guess that is my fault. Does this happen even if you remove unity?
Ubuntu has been pissing me off more and more with each release lately, but thats the last straw, I am switching to Mint tonight. Is anyone aware of similar issues with Mint?
It's the American Way!
Without you, I would have never ever, ever, ever discovered Debian!
Ubuntu might write off people who oppose this change as a small minority of geeks, and the vast majority of people won't care.
Which is true in the short term. Unfortunately as history has proved repeatedly, the "vast majority of people" go to a geek for advice. That might be a family member, a trusted friend or some geek writing something online. They might not understand what the issue is, but over time they will hear the geek background noise about what Ubuntu is doing. In the Medium to Long term, Ubuntu is in trouble if they continue down this track.
Does everything I need and doesn't waste a bunch of resources.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
to resolve this situation: make it opt-in. I know they're trying to finally make some money, but this will hurt them in the long run on that level as well. This type of thing, intrusive internet advertising on the desktop, it's what they call "untenable". People who want that much integration with the internet will surely buy a Chromebook and run Linux, *and* still not have ads on their desktops.
Using Ubuntu these days goes against why I used Linux to start with.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
This.
Meme.
Jumped.
The.
Shark.
Nice work Mark, you have convinced me to move to some other distro. I will not install any keylogger in my computers willingly. Bye bye, it has been nice few years (since 2009) and now i move on. I understand corporations need to gain income, but selling out your users is wrong way to do it. Forceing your users to install mandatory keylogger is even more wrong. So you can count my 6 computers out of your installation base please.
Can I claim that anything I do on my Ubuntu computer is published by me and thus covered by copyright? I do not own the operating system and the company can access what I do in dash so isn't it like I am publishing my activities to them and their clients? Hit them with a take-down notice.
I admit this thought is not well formulated buy it is the germ of an idea, no?
I never liked Ubuntu from the getgo and like it even less now but I have to admit that it has produced some benefits to the Linux community.
I have to agree. For the most part I've always liked Ubuntu, but even after moving to Xubuntu after the Unity nonsense I still didn't like the direction they were/are going in. Moved to Linux Mint XFCE and haven't looked back.
And honestly, I don't even mind that Gnome and Unity have been the abysmal disasters that they are either. XFCE works great for the most part. I do run mutter instead of xfwm because it has a better compositor, but thats pretty seamless and works great.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
It's just weird.
There's clearly room for a nice, user friendly, for profit desktop OS now that Windows has left that market. Shuttleworth seems to want Ubuntu to be that OS. Presumably an easy to use linux distro could be that OS.
Adding layers of complexity and useless features (or anti-features) nobody wants to a system that most people (apparently for some reason) already find too complex is... not just the wrong way to position themselves to be that OS, it's also really obviously the wrong way, to the point where one has to wonder how they could have possibly made this mistake.
I can't even see why people would get mad about this. There are so many groups that are willing to do all the useful work that cannonical does, but for free, that if cannonical goes out of business nothing of value is lost. Not even from a marketroid point of view -- Redhat has proven that commercial linux can work already. So Ubuntu's failure wouldn't even harm morale. :)
This really isn't the only reason to avoid Ubuntu, but it is the most compelling. Aside from dependency hell, Unity, and the ridiculous amount of patches that get applied to all the packages, that many times break applications (I'm a developer for http://getnightingale.com/ - Ubuntu's taglib is completely hosed from our perspective), and in general it is TOO friendly to the user, making them dumb and complacent in most cases.
I talked to Hak5's Darren recently and he's moving away from Ubuntu, and I did 4 years ago to Arch for my single user machines and Debian for my servers. I haven't looked back since. Most other distros are much more in line with the open standards and software that Linux is all about than Shuttlebuntu. Give some other distros a try, and you may find one that just blows your mind...like Archlinux, Debian, Mint, or whatever else.
1. Sniff packet and determine format and destination of the information.
2. Create script to produce random weird porn searches such as 'transsexual midget horse porn'
3. Create another script to randomly spoof the address with these fake searches.
4. Distribute scripts, have a huge number of people run them, and then laugh at the data that's getting shared.
"if you have are not paying for it, you are not the customer - you are the product being sold". (source unknown)
Yet, Wozniak said the iPhone is behind on features.
Maybe he's f--ked up?
"That's right...I said it."
Anyone caught posting the above will be beaten severely with their own keyboard.
Xubunbtu
Kubuntu
Lubuntu
Mint
...
You don't have to install Ubuntu main line and have your privacy Dash'd to pieces by their business practices and partners.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Yeah man, my phone calls soooooooo much faster now my conversation ends before it even begins!
I wish I was trolling, but up to now I've been a huge proponent of OSS: the fact that the source code is available for review makes it relatively secure. For the common user Open Source's flagship products are Libre Office, Firefox, and Ubuntu. Now I find out Ubuntu wants to sneak in ads and sell user data and I have to wonder, if they do this what other product is also doing it or plans to?
Please, open source developers, do it for free or charge for it upfront, but don't sneak in hidden "features." It goes against the spirit of the movement and creates huge distrust in the community.
Hopefully this is limited to systems with GUI's installed and not headless servers.
http://www.linuxmint.com/
The issues have not been addressed.
If opportunity came disguised as temptation, one knock would be enough.
3^2 * 67^1 * 977^1
Not necessarily true.
iPhone5 has better memory, while the S3 has a much faster processor.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/136291-iphone-5-benchmarks-slower-than-the-galaxy-s3-faster-than-the-nexus-7
nuff said
--
Teun
Shuttleworth's response translated: Ubuntu is spyware by default.
It's disturbing that Mark Shuttleworth fails to realize how privacy works.
The right move would be to give users clear optional choices that honestly explains the tradeoff:
Do you want to support Ubuntu by allowing us to spy on you:
Yes or No.
I thought linux was really free, anti-evil, anti-crapware. Now, canorical is betraying the linux community with advertising and selling your keystrokes for the sole purpose of becoming the world's #1 operating system and beating out all competition. That's not what linux is all about.
I use Ubuntu, it took 5mins to deactivate the thing.
Do you use Android?
Everything that you do on Android is monitored by Google, probably they are not telling you, but they do.
When I got my Android tablet and had to add my email account(like Apple, arghh...), the Google guys started sending me email about "Someone had access to Google Earth with your account" It was me. They provided logs and coordinates. It was fucking annoying to realize the obvious, they were spying on me. No free lunch, you pay with your private info.
I'd rather use Microsoft Windows 8. Now that says something!
Anyone caught posting the above will be beaten severely with their own keyboard.
<-- This. Please don't propagate this "please don't propagate this 'this' meme anymore" anymore.
0.0.0.0 (smaller by 2 characters is why, faster to parse, faster to load into memory)... vs. the larger & slower to parse + load 127.0.0.1 loopback adapter address you're currently suggesting!
* :)
(Just some "FYI", from "the Lord of Hosts" - in 'yours truly' (not meaning that 2nd quoted term, literally, but the point's there - enjoy!)).
APK
P.S.=> "Onwards & UPWARDS"...
... apk
Comparing a Ferrari to Ubuntu is just one of the many fails in your post.
It is more like a Pinto with that unity junk.
It's a shame really. I no longer have a distro that I feel really comfortable recommending to non-techie users. In my opinion, Shuttleworth has pissed away most of his very well earned respect in the community.
I've long felt that Ubuntu was the only really "complete" distro for the desktop. Other ones come close, but they tend to have one major issue or another for regular users. Ubuntu had the least, by far. Sucks.
First Unity, now this. They both suck. I mean, they really do.
expandfairuse.org
Two obvious reasons:
1. A lot of people think that the value of things is measured in dollars, and so if a project doesn't make money it's not worth doing.
2. There's basically nobody on the planet who wouldn't like having more money.
I am officially gone from
Everyone does realize that google records every key typed in when searching - right? RIGHT? How else do you think the results get updated at every keystroke?
Idiots...
To wit, 10++ things AdBlock can't do, hosts can:
Hell of a thing to quote,
I do use a HOSTS file and appreciate your trying to learn others as well.
So add to your post this warning for HostsXpert - that being; don't use it.
HostsXpert is a Windows HOSTS file editor, add. remove, play with your HOSTS file
But it will render your HOSTS file useless, while looking quite normal.
I've written the author years ago, I've posted to www.majorgeeks.com who still host HostsXpert
nothing has changed. HostsXpert version 4.4 should be removed from the Internet as it's malware.
Proof: this works 100% of the time (otherwise it's random) with your HOSTS file loaded in HostsXpert
"toggle comment" on any entry, it will add: # your comment
It will also change every space to a tab, rendering the HOSTS file useless. Unless
you have a text editor set to show tabs you will never notice it.
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
becomes
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
changing a space to a tab to every entry in your HOSTS file.
This thing sounds great! But I couldn't get it installed on my Chromebook. Please help, as I want to make my Chromebook run as fast as possible.
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
becomes
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
Never shows up correctly (but you get a hint of how hard it is to find)
First line is separated by a space, the second a tab.
I've used Linux since I could get RedHat on Floppies. I personally like BSD based systems, but for my family who play more games, I typically have used Ubuntu. I work as a senior systems admin, and I make the purchasing and installation decisions at the company where I work.
I don't like the idea of spyware coming as a default solution on my kid's laptop. Or my aunt's, or my wife's, or my grandmother's, or my friends'. I don't like the idea of recommending Ubuntu on any system at the Linux User's Group in my region. That is because I don't like the idea of spyware, period. This was one of the reasons why I walked away from anything Windows for personal use a while back. I've been recommending various Linux distributions for home and production work for over two decades now, and this is the first time I'll be telling everyone to find something other than Ubuntu, and to avoid that distro, as well as anything heavily comingled with the Ubuntu source tree.
Yes, I did know about the Unity key logging issue prior to this, but I had expected that this was an oversight of Canonical, not an intended feature design. Now that this is confirmed as being deliberate (and not deliberately stupid), I'm of the opinion that they could easily introduce other spyware "features" as they see fit in the future, probably without any pesky public outcry. Because of Canonical's dishonesty and general smarminess in regard to the stealthy introduction of spyware onto one of the critical user interfaces of their distro, I simply cannot trust anything coming from them. I consider their tree tainted. I will be suggesting to ALL of those people that I give recommendations to either move to Debian, or CentOS, or something else NOT based on the Ubuntu tree. I will be recommending that Ubuntu based distro installs be unsupported at future LUG install fests. It will not matter to me if they reverse course at a later point, because Shuttleworth has already responded to this problem with a rather dismissive wave of his hand, and any reversal of his opinion would strictly be due to a damaged reputation, and not because, I feel, that he or Canonical has any integrity to begin with.
More importantly in terms of my own time, I now have to come up with migration plans for those family members I do support. I am not thrilled about this, because I am their "tech support", and they, as users, have serious problems with changes to how the GUI looks and operates. I also have friends who have bought laptops through System76 who are infuriated about Canonical's antics as well. Canonical may seem to feel that people like me and my friends can now simply go away as soon as they think they are more successful, but Canonical is forgetting the kind of people who put them into their lofty position. I will be working on taking this away from them, as hard if not harder than I promoted them in the past.
READ -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3472325&cid=42939565
* :)
HOWEVER - WHAT CONFUSES ME IS YOU SAY YOURS BECOMES "UNUSABLE" & that is news to me with TABS, so... what OS do you use (version too, thanks).
I got your point, & seriously paid attention, hence my querying you now... & again - thanks for your reply!
APK
P.S.=> You *MAY* want to be aware of that (see inside, especially @ its termination)...
... apk
I am NOT sure what "Chromebooks" use, but I'd wager it's some Linux variant (for the Operating System) but... feel free to correct me where/when I am off/wrong, & thanks (IF I am, I can stand correction to "grow" like anybody else is why I state that).
* Especially with equipment I don't utilize myself "hand-on"...
Thanks!
APK
P.S.=> Oh, & see subject-line above - & IF You have a Windows "rig" around, & Chromebooks DO INDEED run a form of *NIX? You MAY have to run a DosToUnix utility over the resultant custom hosts file mine produces as well (differences in them, ASCII to EBCIDIC & such with differing OS on diff. hardware platforms etc.et al)...
... apk
It's a text file, that needs to be Open/Read-Write/Close(flush before close is prudent, but the point's there).
Thus - the load, as I said, would be slower in read due to being larger (and it gets read, line by line, in the file I/O cycle I listed above) with 127.0.0.1 block address Gothmolly uses, vs. the smaller & faster READ 0.0.0.0 from the hosts file itself!
You? Fail!
APK
P.S.=> Better luck next time, & read closer... apkYou? Fail!
How do you do that in Arch, now that the hosts file has been eliminated by the bloody, I mean, bleeding edge ...of change ...for the sake of change?
Is this something I don't know about? I used Arch on my laptops for some 4 years or so, until as recently as last week(*), and /etc/hosts worked just fine.
* [digression] I enjoyed the ride with Arch for a long time, having migrated from Slackware. Years ago, it was the similarity to Slackware (i.e. simplicity) in combination with a more feature-laden package manager that attracted me to Arch, but now a lot of that simplicity has evaporated in favour of all sorts of trendy doodads. I sort of got used to things getting broken in the course of rolling-release upgrades (or in some cases just staying broken from the start), but when pacman borked my machine for the umpteenth time last week, I blew Arch away and reinstalled Slackware. It was like coming home: everything "just works", and any individual applications that I want to be really current can be built by myself or obtained from trusted repositories.
I'm probably one of the few people who actually doesn't find Unity so bad and don't get all the hate that it seems to have here on Slashdot. I use 12.04 on my primary machine and Unity works well enough for me: it's not revolutionary, but it's no better and no worse than the Gnome 2 user experience that came before it. However, these types of shenanigans is where I draw the line. While Ubuntu did a lot of good work in their time, I don't think I'll ever upgrade to Quantal or any of their future versions unless I hear they're actually doing something to address these concerns with privacy. My next major upgrade will be to either Debian Squeeze or Linux Mint Nadia, and that's happening soon.
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
I'm not sure why people get so hot under the collar about Unity. I don't personally care for it, but it is similar enough to Gnome 2.x to not be offensive (I suppose), and it probably isn't counter-intuitive for Mac users. Gnome 3 was a big disappointment for me, having been a fan of Gnome since the '90s. I'm now using KDE, and am quite happy now that 4.10 includes compositing, which used to be a bit unreliable with the combination of earlier versions of KDE with compiz.
I'm done with Ubuntu now and forever. Canonical is dead to me.
Kharma is like a boomerang. Mine is broken.
I've been saying for years (to little effect) that desktop Linux is desperately missing a decent firewall which gives the *USER* a choice as to whether any process/program can communicate with the network.
Zone alarm used to be a must have for any Windows box because it would not only block incoming connections but it would prompt the user whenever *anything* tried to get out to the internet. No exceptions. Nothing left the machine without you, the all important user, giving it the go ahead (I actually tested an early version used a packet sniffer and it actually did "just what it said in the tin")
This was not only invaluable for giving you control of your machine but it was an excellent method for spotting viruses on peoples machines because as soon as the program tried to connect out to the net a nice pop up would appear asking if you wanted to allow this (and did you want your answer rememberred). Err.. no and never ! Even better people actually listened when I expleined this to them and didn't just let anything connect.
Without such a fully featured, user friendly, firewall desktop Linux users are completely at the mercy of developers doing whatever the hell they like with your machine. Download covers from Amazon for your MP3 collection (thereby telling Amazon exactly what you have on your machine) ? Likewise for IMDB covers ? Sending Amazon keystrokes from the Unity lens ? What next, all keystrokes to go to GOogle for some research effort ?
Without a decent firewall asking if you want to allow stuff to phone home (and denying all by default) the average user has *no idea whatsoever* what information is being leaked out of their nice little Linux desktop.
It's about time people understood that it's as important to be able to block outgoing connections as it is to block incoming connections.
And it's about time the Linux developer community got their fingers out and put such a firewall in place. Hell if I had the time to learn the low level networking stuff I'd have a go myself but age and multiple commitments mean I just don't have the time.
However it's one of the main reason I prefer Windows to Linux on the desktop as at least there are several Windows firewalls that work in this way. Desktop Linux is not only simply not secure but is totally complacent about user security.
Sadly Linux developers do not have your privacy foremost in their minds..
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3472325&cid=42938913
APK
P.S.=> FatPhil, a question - after you read the above:
Why're you such a troll?? apk
If this issue is a Untiy Dash only "feature" and one still wants to use an Ubuntu based distro, there's many options.
Personally, I like the sparse DE in Lubuntu (LXDE). No Dash there. Then there's Xubuntu (XFCE), again, no Dash there either. Since I'm about to upgrade to a new PC from my 1999 P4, I'll be going to Kubuntu (KDE), still no Dash. While my hardware specs kinda excluded me from using Untiy, I've still hated the UI since it's inception. It's better suited for a tablet, much like Windows8.
So when I get my Windows7 laptop in the next few weeks, my first job will be to install Kubuntu.
ShuttleCock is a control freak. I wouldn't trust him or his ripped-off products.
ubuntu is only popular cause noobiefags like you could not be bothered to read a whole paragraph on partitioning their hard drive
To me, Ubuntu demonstrates how the FLOSS ecosystem is in good shape. Just like the evolution theory. I am a recovering apple fanboy who moved to Ubuntu a few montsh ago. I started trying Linux in my laptops already in the late 90's. But there was always something missing. A driver, a resolution ... So I settled then on OSX, which I thought
was "the Linux I always wanted". However, in recent years
I have seen Apple drifting and becoming more like the Microsoft
they used to criticise.
I read more and more about Ubuntu, Mint, etc. and decided to have a go. I tried to install Debian, but some drivers were missing. Now Ubuntu is in all my computers and in my tablet (TF101).
Reportedly Shuttleworth seems not to be a nice person. And Ubuntu collects personal info. But that does not really matter. Just remove Dash. What really matters is that all the money he is spending in making Ubuntu popular also helps Linux in the long run.
It may seem unfair for him to repackage Debian and sell it as "his" product. But, the same will happen to Ubuntu (Mint anyone?). Just wait for someone else with deep pockets to take Ubuntu and repackage it. With GPL, in the end the Linux community always wins. Compare that to other systems.
2. There's basically nobody on the planet who wouldn't like having more money.
so, you are suggesting we use linux that comes from an alien race or life form, instead?
they tend to suck at the terrestrial languages, though; so don't expect their spell-check to be worth a damn.
and if they spy on us, who cares! again, they don't know our languages.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
your product sucks.
you suck.
be off with you!
I use Ubuntu, but never install full-blown desktop meta packages. I start with base installs, disable apt suggestions, and install only what I need to provide the custom tailored experience that I want. What's Unity? It has never been a part of my Ubuntu desktop experience, so I wouldn't know.
I quit Ubuntu because it was slow - slower than Windoze even. And now, this. DOWN with the people all up in your business!!!!
Dear Mark,
See all the annoyed posters here? Count 'em. It'll end up at best being about 1,000 posts, with plenty of folk commenting more than once.
Those are the "sales" you'll lose. For fun sake, multiply it by 100.
Now count all the number of people not complaining. Count all the people on Facebook. Count all the people that Google has data on. That's your potential market. All those people don't care about giving away their personal data.
Take 1 percent of that (as a baseline guesstimate) -- that is how many people you'd reach in a first back-of-the-envelope approximation.
Dear Mark, thanks for spending your own money and resources in bringing about a giant leap for Linux. You've brought about the year of the Linux desktop and the techheads didn't even notice it. It's only normal for you to move to a way where Canonical will actually be self-sustaining / profitable.
I'm very happy with what you did. I might be moving on to something else, but wherever I move, it'll be substantially better than before you started, thanks to your investment.
I'm pretty sure I could get some significant power by coercing geeks into giving me some data but why would I?
It's all gone a bit sinister. I really hoped that I would get the Ubuntu phone but now I wonder.
I'm particularly worried that this push to herd users from PC's to smartphones is intended to kill FOSS.
For me it feels like split personality time, and to a degree that means they win. If I can be normal at home but behave like someone being tagged and tracked and harvested and mined at work, isn't that like slowly boiling a frog until some day it pops out dead or in this case, pops out dead from the movie Equilibrium.
I'm just going to have to drastically cut down or plan my life to have significant time without smartphones but I feel we're being shepherded here - into a sluice where we have to always be logged onto facebook on our phones with a continuous stream of my face being sent off to their servers.
Isn't it a little too much equilibrium?
I'm going to redesign my life to reduce as much as possible I have to be in this grid, and if I can't handle it anymore I will literally live as a vagabond in the wilderness until I inevitably die off.
Idiocrium
I don't want to be a portend of omens..well I guess I do
Unity was an alarm bell. It does make me question Shuttleworth's true motives, It was eerie to see a supposedly open source company neglect years of development in KDE and Gnome to suddenly adopt an untried, untested, unnecessary de-unifier to usurp into Linux windows management. Luckily most geeks I find, have the same innate senses and know when something's wrong. We just need to listen to our inner self and the purest GNU way if and when this happens.
For now, it's all about Linux Mint, Cinnamon, and others and if they turn too, then they also have to be cut loose.
I also have less trust for Amazon over this. I also really feel like special interest groups are really turning the screw now and pushing for their way. We may be back in the days of emacs, or paper cups and string even the way things are going..
Not propagating the "please don't propagate this 'this' meme anymore" anymore.
2013
I seriously hope you guys don't...
Ooops, wrong site.
Using bogus downmods to "try* vainly hide it too? LOL -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3472325&cid=42940435
* Better luck next time, noob!
(I hope you @ least learned something by this)
APK
P.S.=> That "something" you need to have learned is a few things - Respect your betters (myself), since I clearly am, as well as learn that YOU NEED TO LEARN MORE as well, clearly, & before you shoot your mouth off @ the likes of myself, with you NOW finding out that you HAVE to now "EAT YOUR WORDS" flavored with "the bitter taste of SELF-DEFEAT" spiced with your FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH...
... apk
You're more than welcome to disprove my points in favor of hosts here -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3472325&cid=42938913 instead - that'd be FAR MORE EFFECTIVE, don't you agree?
1 problem though - you can't: YOU know it, I KNOW IT, & so does anyone else reading here with 1/2 a brain also!
* :)
So, see my subject-line above, & realize this: YOU FAIL!
APK
P.S.=> Ah, it's always the SAME b.s. over & over, seeing my 'detractors' being unable to validly disprove my points on the benefits of custom hosts files for speed, security, reliability, & even anonymity to an extent (vs. DNS request logs + DNSBL's they may not like also it allows them to get past) - & thus?
Well... lol, you just KNOW you're MAKING ME just HAVE to say it, as-is-per my own "inimitable style":
THIS? This was just "too, Too, TOO EASY - just '2ez'"
Always is!
Just in seeing whoever downmodded my post I just replied to, unjustifiably (by lacking the ability to disprove my points on hosts that benefit end users of them via valid computing technical critique on THEIR part to do so), have to resort to the "last resort of trolls" (lol) in unjusitifiable downmods to *try* to vainly & effetely "hide" my post so others won't see it!
New NEWS/NewsFlash/Clue: Most folks here browse WELL BELOW the bogus slashdot default pageview (in order to see all points posted) & will + DO see it, + I just post beneath the post you do it to, & it drags it right back into view... so, so much for that on YOUR parts, trolls!
Folks see it, & many times, start using them (anyone want proofs of that too? "Ask & YE SHALL RECEIVE" since I have, oh, roughly 100 of them here or so as proof thereof).
No, lmao, instead, what do I get??
Bogus downmods to try hide my posts, & a "Run, Forrest - RUN!!! when I make that challenge I did above to these worms who do these "hit & run" bogus downmods of my posts, every single time - which not a SINGLE ONE here has managed to disprove in my posts' points listed in favor of custom hosts files & what they can do that is of benefit to end users of them!
(Man - It is UTTERLY hilarious... & consistently so in fact - but, it also allows me to know I am doing the RIGHT thing by others, perhaps that is the most important fact of all here... unlike the trolls downmodding my posts unjustifiably)
... apk
You're more than welcome to disprove my points in favor of hosts here -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3472325&cid=42938913 instead - that'd be FAR MORE EFFECTIVE, don't you agree?
1 problem though - you can't: YOU know it, I KNOW IT, & so does anyone else reading here with 1/2 a brain also!
* :)
So, see my subject-line above, & realize this: YOU FAIL!
APK
P.S.=> Ah, it's always the SAME b.s. over & over, seeing my 'detractors' being unable to validly disprove my points on the benefits of custom hosts files for speed, security, reliability, & even anonymity to an extent (vs. DNS request logs + DNSBL's they may not like also it allows them to get past) - & thus?
Well... lol, you just KNOW you're MAKING ME just HAVE to say it, as-is-per my own "inimitable style":
THIS? This was just "too, Too, TOO EASY - just '2ez'"
Always is!
Just in seeing whoever downmodded my post I just replied to, unjustifiably (by lacking the ability to disprove my points on hosts that benefit end users of them via valid computing technical critique on THEIR part to do so), have to resort to the "last resort of trolls" (lol) in unjusitifiable downmods to *try* to vainly & effetely "hide" my post so others won't see it!
New NEWS/NewsFlash/Clue: Most folks here browse WELL BELOW the bogus slashdot default pageview (in order to see all points posted) & will + DO see it, + I just post beneath the post you do it to, & it drags it right back into view... so, so much for that on YOUR parts, trolls!
Folks see it, & many times, start using them (anyone want proofs of that too? "Ask & YE SHALL RECEIVE" since I have, oh, roughly 100 of them here or so as proof thereof).
No, lmao, instead, what do I get??
Bogus downmods to try hide my posts, & a "Run, Forrest - RUN!!! when I make that challenge I did above to these worms who do these "hit & run" bogus downmods of my posts, every single time - which not a SINGLE ONE here has managed to disprove in my posts' points listed in favor of custom hosts files & what they can do that is of benefit to end users of them!
(Man - It is UTTERLY hilarious... & consistently so in fact - but, it also allows me to know I am doing the RIGHT thing by others, perhaps that is the most important fact of all here... unlike the trolls downmodding my posts unjustifiably)
... apk
You're more than welcome to disprove my points in favor of hosts here -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3472325&cid=42938913 instead - that'd be FAR MORE EFFECTIVE, don't you agree?
1 problem though - you can't: YOU know it, I KNOW IT, & so does anyone else reading here with 1/2 a brain also!
* :)
So, see my subject-line above, & realize this: YOU FAIL!
APK
P.S.=> Ah, it's always the SAME b.s. over & over, seeing my 'detractors' being unable to validly disprove my points on the benefits of custom hosts files for speed, security, reliability, & even anonymity to an extent (vs. DNS request logs + DNSBL's they may not like also it allows them to get past) - & thus?
Well... lol, you just KNOW you're MAKING ME just HAVE to say it, as-is-per my own "inimitable style":
THIS? This was just "too, Too, TOO EASY - just '2ez'"
Always is!
Just in seeing whoever downmodded my post I just replied to, unjustifiably (by lacking the ability to disprove my points on hosts that benefit end users of them via valid computing technical critique on THEIR part to do so), have to resort to the "last resort of trolls" (lol) in unjusitifiable downmods to *try* to vainly & effetely "hide" my post so others won't see it!
New NEWS/NewsFlash/Clue: Most folks here browse WELL BELOW the bogus slashdot default pageview (in order to see all points posted) & will + DO see it, + I just post beneath the post you do it to, & it drags it right back into view... so, so much for that on YOUR parts, trolls!
Folks see it, & many times, start using them (anyone want proofs of that too? "Ask & YE SHALL RECEIVE" since I have, oh, roughly 100 of them here or so as proof thereof).
No, lmao, instead, what do I get??
Bogus downmods to try hide my posts, & a "Run, Forrest - RUN!!! when I make that challenge I did above to these worms who do these "hit & run" bogus downmods of my posts, every single time - which not a SINGLE ONE here has managed to disprove in my posts' points listed in favor of custom hosts files & what they can do that is of benefit to end users of them!
(Man - It is UTTERLY hilarious... & consistently so in fact - but, it also allows me to know I am doing the RIGHT thing by others, perhaps that is the most important fact of all here... unlike the trolls downmodding my posts unjustifiably)
... apk
You're more than welcome to disprove my points in favor of hosts here -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3472325&cid=42938913 instead - that'd be FAR MORE EFFECTIVE, don't you agree?
1 problem though - you can't: YOU know it, I KNOW IT, & so does anyone else reading here with 1/2 a brain also!
* :)
So, see my subject-line above, & realize this: YOU FAIL!
APK
P.S.=> Ah, it's always the SAME b.s. over & over, seeing my 'detractors' being unable to validly disprove my points on the benefits of custom hosts files for speed, security, reliability, & even anonymity to an extent (vs. DNS request logs + DNSBL's they may not like also it allows them to get past) - & thus?
Well... lol, you just KNOW you're MAKING ME just HAVE to say it, as-is-per my own "inimitable style":
THIS? This was just "too, Too, TOO EASY - just '2ez'"
Always is!
Just in seeing whoever downmodded my post I just replied to, unjustifiably (by lacking the ability to disprove my points on hosts that benefit end users of them via valid computing technical critique on THEIR part to do so), have to resort to the "last resort of trolls" (lol) in unjusitifiable downmods to *try* to vainly & effetely "hide" my post so others won't see it!
New NEWS/NewsFlash/Clue: Most folks here browse WELL BELOW the bogus slashdot default pageview (in order to see all points posted) & will + DO see it, + I just post beneath the post you do it to, & it drags it right back into view... so, so much for that on YOUR parts, trolls!
Folks see it, & many times, start using them (anyone want proofs of that too? "Ask & YE SHALL RECEIVE" since I have, oh, roughly 100 of them here or so as proof thereof).
No, lmao, instead, what do I get??
Bogus downmods to try hide my posts, & a "Run, Forrest - RUN!!! when I make that challenge I did above to these worms who do these "hit & run" bogus downmods of my posts, every single time - which not a SINGLE ONE here has managed to disprove in my posts' points listed in favor of custom hosts files & what they can do that is of benefit to end users of them!
(Man - It is UTTERLY hilarious... & consistently so in fact - but, it also allows me to know I am doing the RIGHT thing by others, perhaps that is the most important fact of all here... unlike the trolls downmodding my posts unjustifiably)
... apk
You're more than welcome to disprove my points in favor of hosts validly on computing technical based grounds, here -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3472325&cid=42938913 instead: With its points in favor of gaining end users of custom hosts files more speed, security, reliability & even anonymity (to an extent vs. DNS request logs)!
Now - that'd be FAR MORE EFFECTIVE on YOUR trolling parts, don't you agree?
1 problem though - you can't: YOU know it, I KNOW IT, & so does anyone else reading here with 1/2 a brain also!
* :)
So, see my subject-line above, & realize this: YOU FAIL!
("Run, Forrest - RUN!!! is all I have to say to the cowardly little trolls doing their "hit & run" downmods of my post... how they can LIVE with themselves, I'll never know!)
APK
P.S.=> Ah, it's always the SAME b.s. over & over, seeing my 'detractors' being unable to validly disprove my points on the benefits of custom hosts files for speed, security, reliability, & even anonymity to an extent for end users of custom hosts files (vs. DNS request logs + DNSBL's they may not like also it allows them to get past) - & thus?
Well... lol, you just KNOW you're MAKING ME just HAVE to say it, as-is-per my own "inimitable style":
THIS? This was just "too, Too, TOO EASY - just '2ez'"
Always is!
Just in seeing whoever downmodded my post I just replied to, unjustifiably (by them lacking the ability & intelligence + valid information to disprove my points on hosts that benefit end users of them via valid computing technical critique on THEIR part, in order to validly do so), have to resort to the "last resort of trolls" (lol) in unjusitifiable downmods to *try* to vainly & effetely "hide" my post so others won't see it!
New NEWS/NewsFlash/Clue: Most folks here browse WELL BELOW the bogus slashdot default pageview (in order to see all points posted) & will + DO see it, + I just post beneath the post you do it to, & it drags it right back into view... so, so much for that on YOUR parts, trolls!
Folks see it, & many times, start using them (anyone want proofs of that too? "Ask & YE SHALL RECEIVE" since I have, oh, roughly 100 of them here or so as proof thereof).
No, lmao, instead, what do I get??
Bogus downmods to try hide my posts, & a "Run, Forrest - RUN!!! when I make that challenge I did above to these worms who do these "hit & run" bogus downmods of my posts, every single time - which not a SINGLE ONE here has managed to disprove in my posts' points listed in favor of custom hosts files & what they can do that is of benefit to end users of them!
(Man - It is UTTERLY hilarious... & consistently so in fact - but, it also allows me to know I am doing the RIGHT thing by others, perhaps that is the most important fact of all here... unlike the trolls downmodding my posts unjustifiably)
... apk
The same refrain echoed over and over again by spammers and other sociopaths: "we're going to lie to you, we're going to abuse you, we're going to compromise your security, we're going to invade your privacy, we're going to harass you, we're going to steal from you...but hey...you can opt-out."
I am sure that when Mark Shuttleworth et.al. install the next anti-security anti-privacy mechanism that they'll say you can opt out of that one too. And the next...and the one after that.
This is a path we've seen heavily traveled before. It always leads to the same place. And Ubuntu has now committed itself, irrevocably, to the first step. it is clearly time to recognize, as Stallman has, that Ubuntu == spyware.
Use Lubuntu or Xubuntu instead! They're much faster and less bloated!!!!! Lubuntu/LXDE is the best distro/GUI I've used, even lighter than XFCE.
http://nathanlindsell.blogspot.com/
I agree. However, that sort of information should be guarded under a different principle, which is general privacy laws. No one should have access to that type of personal information unless it's signed over by the informed consumer.
Ubuntu 10.04 was the last useful release of Ubuntu.
I'll let HIM "do the talking" for me... How's that, chump? Here goes: AND, right after HE CONCEDED IT TO ME ON THIS VERY SAME POINT no less, & right here on this website!
Due to common-sense any competent computer scientist knows you fool & yes - To a Richard Russell who posts as FOREDECKER here!
(He was the senior VP at Microsoft and leader of the "Windows Client Performance Division" there)
He conceded THAT (since a smaller file will read in faster than a larger one, & that is what results using smaller data that does the SAME job idiot), & other of my points on HOSTS files also:
---
PERTINENT QUOTE/EXCERPT:
"Of course, larger files take longer to load." - by Foredecker (161844) * on Wednesday December 09, @10:34PM (#30384666) Homepage
FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1467692&cid=30384918
---
Quite a bit faster results happens with smaller blocking addresses noted below, due to smaller filesize for looped programmatic reads by the IP stack of the hosts file, & NOTICEABLY SO (can't recall the numbers but it's linearly related to the diff here between these filesizes being read in moron, large size differentials result):
---
BLOCKING ADDRESSES USED & FILESIZE VARIANCE:
0 = ~ 42mb size
0.0.0.0 = ~ 53mb size
127.0.0.1 = ~ 58mb size
---
Using a custom hosts file with each above having 1,934,453++ entries largely composed of KNOWN malicious sites online to be blocked out (what I use now).
---
You like apples?
"HOW'D YA LIKE THEM APPLES??"
You noob chump!
APK
P.S.=> This takes the cake, lmao, seriously:
"How much faster?" - by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19, @12:43PM (#42946419)
Since the above's already "done you in" by letting YOU do it to yourself in the face of your betters in myself & Mr. Russell of MS above? Ok:
Faster! See above...
Quite a bit & NOTICEABLY SO (can't recall the numbers but it's linearly related to the diff here between these filesizes being read in moron, large size differentials result):
---
"I need quantifiable data here (hint: use real numbers)." - by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19, @12:43PM (#42946419)
LMAO! YOU need a brain, & a computer sciences classical education!
Especially before "the likes of YOU" ever even *think* of attempting to "try me"... you end up eating your words, every single time, flavored with "the bitter taste of SELF-defeat & your FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH, noobie!
(Amateur/Noob that you are...)
Additionally - YOU NEED A SET OF BALLS, you AC trolling weasel... & yes - I KNOW YOU HAVE A "registered 'luser'" account, but you're either unconfident & hiding doing AC replies, or just trolling (since only a FOOL would act as you do vs. common-sense reason, 2 degreed individuals in the computer sciences telling you HOW IT REALLY WORKS in File I/O vs. your STUPID initial post on diskdrive reads vs. programmatic file I/O the hosts has done on it via the built-in DNS resolver in Windows' IP stack!
(The fact you need to stalk & troll me thus, only to end up wearing egg on your face & having to "eat your words" flavored with the bitter taste of SELF-defeat through your ignorance & arrogance, ends you up doing that along with your foot in your mouth, troll!)
---
"Just screaming "it's faster!" over and over again isn't doing it for me." - by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19, @12:43PM (#42946419)
"Doing it 4U"?
Please - YOU "did it", to yourself!
Right when & WHERE YOU "did yourself in" right @ the start here, & my reply here did the rest with the above ->
Is "that the best ya got", AC troll? Especially after it DUSTED you??
* Little hardware side techie only, listen: You're playing with the BIG BOYS now, ones who design the tools YOU MERELY USE, user (programmers, in myself).
(Your results & YOUR FAIL, merely prove my point for me, fool... thank-you!)
APK
P.S.=> Now, you MAY not *like* that last part above after the asterisk, but it IS, how it IS, & fact!
That - as well as the fact I burned your AC trolling ass SO BADLY here -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3472325&cid=42940435 that all you had in "effete retaliation" was an unjustifiable downmod & NO DISPROVING MY POINTS in that link!
Now, you KNOW (as longtime /.'ers know & what's coming because of your stupidity) that this is coming & YOU?
Well... you're just MAKING me just HAVE to SAY it:
THIS? This was just "too, Too, TOO EASY - just '2ez'", & always is, vs. computing wannbes that only think "hardware side" in 'techies' (the janitors of the trade)...
... apk
WTF do you want? You do not want to pay for software, you want it free, but since the Free Software crowd in Linux is unable to deliver a decent experience, you've welcomed Mr. Shuttleworth's Wonderful Piggybacking Adventure in Debianland. Now, how do you expect he should pay his employees and run a business?
This is what happens, kids. You've been told you are to pay for nothing. You've been told that advanced software should be free. Never mind that you still pay for hardware, or cars, or power tools at your garage (a contractor pays much more for his tools than you have come to expect to pay for yours, although most of your tools are offshoots or direct products of PhDs). But software! Hey, software should be free as shit is free! You've been told supporting businesses is illegal - almost - or at least immoral. Now you get what you pay for.
So, stop complaining and quit with the whining. Or face the fact that free as in "libre" software is only free because someone else is freeing up the costs for you (by either entering the GPL/proprietary double-blind cynical scheme, or using a business-friendly license). There is no free lunch. There is no pool of full time experts in free software. Experts don't work for nothing. Only the low-skilled works for nothing. Everybody's gotta eat, and not everyone is a lonely celibate as Stallman, that can just go around collecting money for his Church.
You keep kidding yourselves that Linux is the victor of Free Software, when all it was was part of an IBM backed-up business plan to kill proprietary Unixen. Linux is driven by corporations, and now you will begin to eat each other's livers. All that will remain is going to be Shuttleworth's Spyware Machine and Red Hat's per seat licenses. Debian sucks, Fedora is the RedHat dump site, Mandriva is moronically managed, SuSE - wtf is SuSE?, and all the small distros are insignificant. You thought being business-hostile was good, but you've embrace hypocrisy to the utmost, while deriding the BSD distros, which never claimed to ride such high horses of morality and always supported businesses.
You want it all, but you can't have it...
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
Shuttleworth is the Zuckerberg of free software. Since the Linux crowd has been gullible enough to believe you don't have to pay for advanced software tools, now he's out to sell your data. What is the poor man to do, if he wants a little profit? Surely, he can't keep paying his employees, dedicated full time to fixing Debian's shortcomings, out of his own pocket, can he? So he's gonna sell YOU.
All should be well in your philosophy, because Free Software is made effortlessly. The only people that have to pay for their own tools are the 99% of non-TI workers: the doctors, the carpenters, the farmers. They must buy microscopes, endoscopes, a wood saw, a truck, a tractor. But people who need compilers must not. Software falls off a tree. Or it's magically made by the Debian packagers. Wait...But what do they "package"? Oh, that's right! Software made by other people! Oh, my! I'm so confused...
The part I don't really grasp is...do you *actually* pay for hardware ?! If so, then why?! Why don't you just grab a notebook and run out of the store?!
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
WTF are you talking about? If you use Ubuntu, you use a product of Shuttleworth's company. And what is this "community" you're talking about? Linux developers sometimes don't have the decency of writing portable Unix software (as anybody with a BSD experience witll tell you - Autotools my ass!). Is Red Hat part of the "community"? If it is, then they suck, because Fedora sucks, they're Red Hat's fart, and Red Hat sells per-seat licenses. So does SuSE. And the failing Mandriva. Debian ceased to exist on its own a long time ago, when their workflow imploded the distro, grinding eveything to a halt. It is now officially the provider of royal jelly for the Queen Bee of free software, Ubuntu.
See: http://lunedemiel.tm.fr/anglais/07.htm
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
I think it really speaks volumes about competence and vision when a millionaire took a bunch of supposedly übergeeks from Debian and came up with Unity, while, another millionaire took Unix developers and developed a full-on Unix-based GUI based on the Smalltalk-inspired objective-C, then took a microkernel that was dead in the FSF's water, souped it up with BSD user land and came up with Mac OS X. Now, you tell me, who is the wisest?
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
The ONLY time I've seen hosts become "unusable" is due to a simple mistake in how notepad.exe is setup - it defaults to a *.txt extension (text file on SAVE: STU-PID to the max, & deceiving).
* So, by ANY chance, did you attempt to manipulate your custom hosts file with it, accidentally saving it as such (text file, e.g.-> hosts.txt)?
It's deceiving due to THAT, & another 'fuckup' I feel MS has made in attempting to "dumb down" their interfaces as well, albeit this time, in explorer.exe instead (by NOT showing the FULL FILENAME in it by default... that'll deceive you there too, unless you CLOSELY EXAMINE the filetype... hosts (no extension lists as type "file") vs. hosts.txt (extension hidden, will list as type "text file" iirc - I don't do THAT crap anymore, & don't care to verify that specifically now by resetting it, but I wager from memory here, that IS the filetype shown)... it'll deceive much as you state what YOU see does!
APK
P.S.=> On a guess/hypothesis, since I've made that mistake early on & it "bit me in the ass" too in the SAME way? One I didn't make again, lol, especially after that & it blasted me in the face for lack of a better expression & I learned by it?? That's what "went down" possibly, with you... good learning experience if anything IF that's the case here (some FYI is all, don't mean to preach, it's happened to me too, lol)...
... apk
(However - are you ABSOLUTELY sure it does that with the TAB
character? Again - I've seen many hosts files that use that between the IP
address & the host-domain name's why I ask!)
Bottom line, It changes spaces to tabs of ones HOSTS file yet appears the HOSTS file will still work.
To test once again if Hostexpert 4.4 disables ones HOSTS file I downloaded, It's a stand alone, .Chm help file.
doesn't need to be installed - Just two files; the executable and a
Under my previous XP's (Dual boot) my HOSTS file wasn't doing anything, I
searched long and hard for a fix, one time opened the HOSTS file in Notepad++
when I found the spaces were tabs. UltraEdit is my text editor of choice and
special charters are normally off. I made a macro in UltraEdit to replace the
tabs with spaces as my HOSTS file is over 19000 lines.
I still ran Hostexpert 4.4, when the HOSTS file quit working I'd find tabs
again and have to rerun the macro at which time it would work again. It's a
random error unless you right click on an entry and select "Toggle Comment",
at which time it's a gimme your spaces are now tabs.
Under Win7 it doesn't matter, so I installed XP and this time the tabs made no
difference. Using no HOSTS file and one with spaces and one tabbed, Slashdot.org
only showed ads with no HOSTS file.
So I was wrong, but at the time a tabbed HOSTS file didn't work in two
separate XP systems; a spaced HOSTS file did. I quit using Hostexpert years
ago as it did indeed disable my HOSTS file at the time.
Thank you for the feed back, it made me go back and retest a really good
HOSTS file editor actually. While it will change your spaces after the 127.0.0.1
or 0.0.0.0 to tabs, it apparently doesn't affect it's operation.
See it here to understand what I mean -> http://www.start64.com/index.php?option
Creates a seriously large file all sites selected, 3732K larger than mine or and extra 100,000+ lines.
I'd suggest allowing one to add single addresses but the program doesn't give an end product. :}
Under "Speedup favorite sites" changing Bing.com to Google.com would be a plus
"I'd suggest allowing one to add single addresses but the program doesn't give an end product." - by Trax3001BBS (2368736) on Thursday February 28, @01:32AM (#43031803) Homepage
When you are in the "NORMALIZE" tab, RIGHT-CLICK on the list produced (it will allow SINGLE entries on the right-click popup menu)... & it also allows FINDING ones you would like to pull out there, too (as a 'side-note' here).
So, essentially?
Use RIGHT-CLICKS popup menus in it, & they are ALL OVER it!
In fact - they mirror MOST of the normal MAIN MENU items & add some, by specific tabs you're currently in, with functions specific to those tabs on their display lists, by right-clicks on them, using the popup menus specific to them that come up on rightclicks!
---
"So I was wrong." - by Trax3001BBS (2368736) on Thursday February 28, @01:32AM (#43031803) Homepage
It happens - think I am NEVER wrong? Well, lol, I rarely am (lol)... but, it happens here too @ times!
(Mistakes HELP YOU, help yourself - you rarely forget their 'lessons' is why... ah, yes - nothing like a GOOD "PUNCH IN THE SKULL", eh? Lmao!).
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"but at the time a tabbed HOSTS file didn't work in two separate XP systems; a spaced HOSTS file did. I quit using Hostexpert years ago as it did indeed disable my HOSTS file at the time." - by Trax3001BBS (2368736) on Thursday February 28, @01:32AM (#43031803) Homepage
I believe you - I don't KNOW if I mentioned this or not, but I will now (MS changes hosts file functionality @ times, & I got into a HUGE debate/argument & WON IT (he conceded my point in fact, regarding blocking addresses possible) with their then VP of the "Windows Client Performance Division" here about 1 of them):
I found an issue in hosts files after 12/09/2008 MS "Patch Tuesday" in VISTA onwards (Windows 7 &/or Server 2008 r2 + beyond)!
Where hosts files could no longer use the faster to load into memory 0 blocking "ip address", an analog to a DROP request in a firewall pretty much (due to smaller files resulting) & faster to parse line-by-line as well (via the tcpip.sys built-in DNS resolver loading hosts & referencing it, FIRST, before anything else by default -> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/172218 ).
Fact is - FIRST: I reported this to Microsoft during their "Engineering Windows 7" blog, here -> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/02/25/feedback-and-engineering-windows-7.aspx?CommentPosted=true&PageIndex=3#comments
In addition to THAT?
Here on /., I literally also got their VP of the "Windows Client Performance Division" to concede my point that using 0 as a blocking "IP address" is superior
(Faster/more efficient)
Especially vs. the 6 characters-per-line larger & slower 0.0.0.0 even (worse yet, vs. the larger by 2-8 characters per line to parse loopback adapter address of 127.0.0.1) & that it would be slower, to LOAD & PARSE that larger custom hosts file result, ala his words quoted next below:
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PERTINENT QUOTE/EXCERPT:
"Of course, larger files take longer to load." - by Foredecker (161844) * on Wednesday December 09, @10:34PM (#30384666) Homepage
FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1467692&cid=30384918
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Quite a bit faster results happens with smaller blocking addresses noted below, due to smaller filesize for looped programmatic reads by the IP stack of the hosts file, & NOTICEABLY SO!
(As it's linearly related to t