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The Register spotted Ubuntu behaving badly again with respect to users' privacy. In their article "Ubuntu wants to slurp PCs' vital statistics – even location – with new desktop installs: Data harvest notice will be checked by default", they note that in addition to installing popcon and apport by default, Canonical seeks much deeper data mining (without using the word "telemetry"):
[...] "We want to be able to focus our engineering efforts on the things that matter most to our users, and in order to do that we need to get some more data about sort of setups our users have and which software they are running on it," explained Will Cooke, the director of Ubuntu Desktop at Canonical.
[...] Data Canonical seeks "would include" the following: Ubuntu Flavour, Ubuntu Version, Network connectivity or not, CPU family, RAM, Disk(s) size, Screen(s) resolution, GPU vendor and model, OEM Manufacturer, Location (based on the location selection made by the user at install). No IP information would be gathered, Installation duration (time taken), Auto login enabled or not, Disk layout selected, Third party software selected or not, Download updates during install or not, [and] LivePatch enabled or not.
The system plans to leverage the power of the default setting by making the choice opt-out, not opt-in as popcon has been in the past: Cooke explained to the ubuntu-devel audience that "Any user can simply opt out by unchecking the box, which triggers one simple POST stating, 'diagnostics=false'. There will be a corresponding checkbox in the Privacy panel of GNOME Settings to toggle the state of this."
El Reg also noted Ubuntu's plan to address user privacy concerns:
"The Ubuntu privacy policy would be updated to reflect this change."
This seems less egregious than Ubuntu's past invasions of privacy, but much more invasive and Windows 10-like.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:33PM (8 children)
I stopped using ubuntu mainly because it seemed to get slower and slower. The same with plain debian (though not as bad as ubuntu).
I switched to Arch (Manjaro) because of speed, but then learned they switched to systemd.
If i had the time and a faster/better machine i'd try distro hopping in a VM, but that's not really an option right now.
I think i'm going to try void and gentoo (used gentoo for a while, but kind of opted out when the whole shit-stain happened with (Daniel??) the lead developer being tossed and the upheaval....).
I dunno: void, gentoo, calculate, maybe some others. But damn, Manjaro is sooooooo nice: except systemd.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:49PM (2 children)
You could look at nosh, http://jdebp.eu/Softwares/nosh/, [jdebp.eu] it's able to convert systemd unit files to it's own style and provides shims to allow usage of sysv, bsd or systemd syntax to manage services. It also seems to have a superset of functionality while not making the most egregious errors in design found in systemd and without the mission creap.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:57PM (1 child)
nosh sherlock, interesting- remove the , from the link to get to its homepage.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 20 2018, @08:49PM
Damnit, stop finding bugs already, you bastards.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:50PM
antix mxlinux, you still get .debs and systemd optional
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @04:23PM
For desktops, I use PCLinuxOS, no systemd, and, on the whole, it just works™..
For servers, *BSDs I'm afraid (migrated from the last systemd-free Debian distro).
Firewall, I'm conflicted, I've a seriously 'fucked with' PCLinuxOS box doing the job at present (only the base packages, development and kernel are from the distro, the rest are compiled from source and local hackery) which is either going to be replaced with a Devuan box (the easy option) or another *BSD one.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 20 2018, @08:48PM (1 child)
Definitely try Void. It's like the lovechild of FreeBSD and Arch in all the good ways. I've been using it for a while and recently wrote a journal entry on it even.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 20 2018, @09:36PM
That's where i got it from :)
Yeah, looks really interesting: looks like what i like about arch but no systemd....
Is it flawless?
That's one reason i'm still with Manjaro (plus no time to hop around): it. is. flawless for me.
I am finding it hard to look elsewhere, at least until i have time.
Might have to try to see if i can get it into a vm, even if it runs sloooowly, just to see how it is.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday February 21 2018, @10:53AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves