Canonical being silly again - Can this not be in Kubuntu, please?

[TWPonKubuntu]

With all due respect; Look up these phrases: "Taking the Blue Pill" and "Step Away From The Dark Side, Luke".

If you really want to help the developers, send them an email with system information. You then control exactly what info is added to their database (including your email...). You owe it to them to help prevent their own movement toward the "dark side".

Avoid allowing these pieces of software from sending data which they (not you) collect from your system. "Trust, but verify" - Ronald Reagen

[psymole]

Hi, thanks Bings. I'm all signed-up.

[Bings]

Hi, I'm running Kubuntu 18.04, and I would like to OPT-IN to the data collection stuff. I know ubuntu propper has a dialogue on the first run. How would I got about doing that in Kubuntu

In Konsole:

sudo apt install ubuntu-report
ubuntu-report

for sending your system details.

For sending weekly details of everything installed on your computer over an unsecure connection, click the checkbox shown in a screenshot on the previous page of this thread.

[GreyGeek]

Hi, I'm running Kubuntu 18.04, and I would like to OPT-IN to the data collection stuff. I know ubuntu propper has a dialogue on the first run. How would I got about doing that in Kubuntu

The default is opt-in. Opting out is the trick.

https://www.howtogeek.com/349844/how...about-your-pc/
but I don't know how much of the info in that link applies to Kubuntu.

[psymole]

Hi, I'm running Kubuntu 18.04, and I would like to OPT-IN to the data collection stuff. I know ubuntu propper has a dialogue on the first run. How would I got about doing that in Kubuntu

[GreyGeek]

Not putting bad software in the distro.

Problem avoided.

Plus you can only solve a problem if you know it's there.

That was the thrust of msg #36. Your msg #37 established that it wasn’t “hidden”. Ergo, no secrets. Easy to use apt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[chimak111]

Here's the Ubuntu manpage for 12.04: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/...contest.8.html just to show it's been around awhile.

On my Kubuntu 16.04, I have /etc/popularity-contest.conf which I didn't bother to look at till now:

# Config file for Debian's popularity-contest package.
#
# To change this file, use:
#        dpkg-reconfigure popularity-contest
#
# You can also edit it by hand, if you so choose.
#
# See /usr/share/popularity-contest/default.conf for more info
# on the options.

MY_HOSTID="08b2..."
PARTICIPATE="no"
USEHTTP="yes"
DAY="1"

[Bings]

popcon is different than what the first post in the thread is about. popcon has been around for quite a few releases. I think popcon originated in Debian and is opt-in.

Well, I wasn't aware it was already included (albeit turned off?), it is phrased in the article like a proposed inclusion. In Ubuntu main, I can't see an option to disable it in their software and updates dialog.

[Bings]

sudo apt remove popularity-contest

Problem solved.

Not putting bad software in the distro.

Problem avoided.

Plus you can only solve a problem if you know it's there.

[claydoh]

popcon was one of the tools in the proposal. popcon=popularity contest.

[chimak111]

popularity-contest/bionic,bionic,now 1.66ubuntu1 all [installed]
Vote for your favourite packages automatically

popcon is different than what the first post in the thread is about. popcon has been around for quite a few releases. I think popcon originated in Debian and is opt-in.

[oshunluvr]

sudo apt remove popularity-contest

problem solved.

+1 :d ....

[GreyGeek]

sudo apt remove popularity-contest

Problem solved.

[Bings]

I was wrong, it is actually in there both ubuntu and kubuntu.

https://www.howtogeek.com/349844/how...about-your-pc/

The “popularity-contest” or “popcon” tool also is installed by default on Ubuntu 18.04. This tool reports to Ubuntu which software packages you have installed on your system. Ubuntu then knows exactly how popular each package is, and they can use this information to focus their development efforts.

In Kubuntu release candidate:

popularity-contest/bionic,bionic,now 1.66ubuntu1 all [installed]
 Vote for your favourite packages automatically

Installed without asking permission. Thumbs down to that.

[GreyGeek]

Or, they could have installed a ubiquitously named daemon to run as root, undocumented, no man page, and not listed by any process id listing sofware. How many of us verify the source code before we compile our distro? I haven't verified or compiled source since I played with LFS, over 15 years ago. I've always run the binaries since I adopted Kubuntu & Neon.

But, given the nature and watchfulness of the FOSS community, I don't see how Ubuntu could hide such a program in their distro and have it evade detection.