Canonical calliing home?

[Fintan]

According to this:
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/70652.html

canonical is looking to collect "data" on how many machines are running *buntu.

Personally I like the idea and installed the census package.
It would be great if the results were published

What do you think?

[Ole Juul]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

I used to like the idea of "proving" that many people use Linux but then I started questioning why it mattered to me. It seems like a popularity game like TV and advertising, and in those worlds, if something is popular then it is most likely not for me. I voted "don't care", but in some ways I do very much.

Since manufactures work on numbers and not principles, it would give leverage to encourage driver writing. On the other hand, there might not be any money in it since there'd be no kickbacks. I think there is a lot of stuff to consider when pondering the usefulness of knowing Linux usage. One thing to keep in mind is that every Linux instance found needs to be subtracted from the MicroSoft numbers.

In the end, I wish Canonical well in this. After all I've gained a lot from what they offer and, for that reason alone, it would be appropriate for me to participate. That said; I couldn't find the app anywhere. It wasn't linked to in the article and it is not in the repositories. I guess I'll have to wait.

[Fintan]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

I hear you, and the reason why I like it is not for a popularity p**** contest but for the leveraging effect it might have.

BTHW canonical-census is in the lucid and maveric repos.

Thank you for participating

[The Liquidator]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

Installed

I assume nothing further needs to be done but if that's wrong could you please let me know?

Thanks

Ian

[MoonRise]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

I voted "Don't Care". I say that because I'm torn between it is a good idea to help bolster (not sure if that is the correct term) the use of Linux based systems and the fact that I do believe that is a "first step" towards Privacy violations. I'm not saying this is, but it could easily lead that direction. Does that really matter now a days? Probably not since we all (the entire planet) are counted and tracked some way or another. So for now, I've added that package until I hear they start collecting more without user knowledge.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

I answered with the "invasion of privacy" response because the poll didn't ask the important question:
Would you approve of Canonical collecting "data" from your machine without your permission?

That I would never allow, BUT, if Canonical limited their data to the physical attributes of my machine, a list of applications I have installed, and even, perhaps, how many times I use each one, I wouldn't mind. IF they collected who I emailed, or email contents, my financial data, or other PERSONAL information, then no.

[Fintan]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

Quote from link:

No User-Specific Data

It's true! The new "canonical-census" package apparently sends an "I am alive" ping to Canonical each day as a way to help the company track the users of OEM Ubuntu installations, according to a report on Phoronix.

No user-specific data is sent, Phoronix notes; rather, the package reportedly transmits only the operating system version, the machine product name and a counter.

"This information will obviously be valuable to see whether customers are keeping around their Ubuntu installations or just wiping them and just how often Ubuntu is being used on these systems," Phoronix's Michael Larabel pointed out.

Plus, "for those not wanting to participate in this anonymous data gathering process, they could always sudo apt-get remove canonical-census," he added.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

It always helps to read the article, doesn't it.

[lcorken]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

I clicked "Don't care". Don't remember an opt-in or out when I installed Lucid.
I have in the past allowed an application popularity feedback. Was that Ubuntu or Fedora? Don't remember, (Mad Cow).

A grocery store chain gives me a discount on some items if I let them scan my club card. I know they track what I purchase because I once received a coupon suggesting I buy some drug instead of Tums. That was somewhat offensive but I still like the discount.

Canonical gives me a big discount over the price of the other OSs, so I won't complain about the stats thing.
$0.00 for Kubuntu vs How much is windoze now days? That reminds me, I'm about due to send a contribution.

The data may be skewed anyway. I have several bootable linux partitions plus an old P3 I drug out of the garage to see if Xubuntu and Lubuntu and Ubuntu Server would work on it. How many others have multiple releases/distros/versions/etc. because it's fun and inexpensive?

Some folks will complain about loss of privacy one day and then complain the next day because there government didn't protect from terrorism or some disaster. I'm not advocating loss of privacy, but we need some sort of balance. Not that that's even possible.

Ken.

[askrieger]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

Many of us already use the "popularity-contest" package.

The popularity-contest package sets up a cron job that will periodically anonymously submit to the Ubuntu developers statistics about the most used Ubuntu packages on this system.

This information helps us making decisions such as which packages should go on the first CD. It also lets us improve future versions of Ubuntu so that the most popular packages are the ones which are installed automatically for new users.

I was unaware of the existence of the canonical-census package, but if I had an OEM installed version of Kubuntu I'd certainly use it.

I think that part of the problem of attracting more attention for Linux from OEMs, is that they have no real measure of the demand for Linux. That's why I always ask whether a machine comes with Linux installed whenever I acquire a new computer.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

"This information will obviously be valuable to see whether customers are keeping around their Ubuntu installations or just wiping them and just how often Ubuntu is being used on these systems," Phoronix's Michael Larabel pointed out.

I don't see how. Many people are like me and also use Linux because of it's relative stability. If Canonical is not going to make the app available for past releases then they are are decidedly not going to know if "customers are keeping around their Ubuntu installations".

This seems strange to me, unless the project is designed to show an unrealistically large uptake of Linux as the old machines drop off. That could have a desirable political spin, but I'm not sure I agree with it.

[kapil]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

installed the package.
liked the idea. it will atleast make hardware companies to keep in mind that linux users are many in number. and they need to release drivers for them as well.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

Installed +1

[vinnywright]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

is one of our installs on some old box considered a OEM install ??

VINNY

[Ole Juul]

Re: Canonical calliing home?

is one of our installs on some old box considered a OEM install ??
VINNY

Hehe, I think it would. However, in classic Microsoft style, you can't install it on an old box without first doing an upgrade.