Need to switch to Hanna Montana Linux now

I actually have some telemetry enabled on my system, cause I want the maintainers of my distro to have more data to base their decisions on. I always disable everything for proprietary software though, and I dislike opt-out systems.

I only enable telemetry for software provided by nonprofit organizations that are legally obligated to publish detailed financial records. Never give anyone that reserves the right to sell you out any of the benefit of your data for free.
- reserves the right to sell you out
  
  Is Canonical actually doing that, though? Collecting data for product improvement purposes and collecting it to potentially sell to third parties are two wildly different things, and doing the former, even with the user's consent, does not mean you automatically reserve the right to do the latter (or anything else, really) with the collected data, unless you explicitly already include that as an option and get consent for it as well. I haven't looked into it myself, so I might be wrong here, but I'm guessing Canonical would be getting way more shit for this if they were actually reserving the right to outright sell the telemetry they're collecting, rather than just use it for product planning and development.
If they ask nicely, maybe I will accept. The KDE guys have telemetry iirc, they get what they need.

Just why?

It's been really sad watching them shoot themselves in the foot like this. They seem bent on destroying their distro. Which was the first distro I really used on an old laptop after trying a few.

Man Ubuntu 16 those were the days.

It's also amazing they even try because a good percentage of Ubuntu users are likely knowledgeable tech users who like to stay aware of their software. Many of them are probably former or current Microsoft or Apple users who want to avoid big corporate OS systems because of creeping advertising.
Why? Because it's working, at least for now.

Canonical has pulled similar shit for years now. Remember the Amazon search integration? They do it again and again, yet most users stay.

And I know, someone will comment "but I totally ditched Ubuntu and my one friend did too!!!!", but how is Ubuntu still the most popular distribution? Finding snaps is easier than finding flatpacks or debs or rpms. Finding support is easier, etc. This might be just momentum, but until that is running out, it's working.
- He said Ubuntu 16, I believe the Amazon search fiasco was in 2012. He simply hasn't been using Linux long enough to know that Ubuntu used to be good. His baseline user experience is probably gnome 3.
  
  So he's comparing extra-shitty Ubuntu to shitty Ubuntu and saying it didn't used to be shitty.

Microsoft:

adding telemetry to the terminal.
(in a recent poweshell update)

with microsoft, it's everyday affair.

What??? For realsies???

This is the "ad". Personally, I don't think a little plug like this is worth any kind of fuss. If it were a real ad or something, then yea I would get it.
- An ad is an ad and this definitely is an ad. This is the kind of shit that made me quit Windows and it would make me quit Ubuntu if I was using it.
- While I'm not bothered by this in particular, like other people have said, it feels like the top of a very slippery slope that I would be bothered by
- It is a real ad though...
- this plus the snap crap they've been doing was enough for me to switch to Debian
- I've been getting ads like these for years on my ubuntu server.
  
  n additional security updates can be applied with ESM Apps. Learn more about enabling ESM Apps service at https://ubuntu.com/esm
  
  This is on a machine running 20.04. Never bothered me. All my other machines are Debian now, and at some point I'll switch that one too.
- Yeah, plus given you can get pro for free it really seems more like a announcement than an ad. Slippery slope though.
- Yeah, this isn't that bad. It's just a suggestion after running an apt upgrade. NPM has similar plugs which I don't find too annoying.
  
  In fact its not even as intrusive as NPM's funding requests, as it is only 2 lines of text, plus it looks like Ubuntu Pro is free for personal use.
- I agree that I wouldnt call that an ad, but it's a pretty distasteful plug
- I see a lot of people comment that this isn’t that bad and that it might even be acceptable, and that’s exactly the problem here: it’s a gateway drug and if we normalise this, Canonical will keep pushing the limits of what they can pull off before it’s not acceptable anymore, and that sounds when it’s too late.
- This is not what I would consider an ad. I also remember seeing it only once
- I have never seen this ever
Haven't kept up with Ubuntu, but I believe this. It's in line with Canonical's behavior. They are very corporaty
Kind of, they have announcements in the terminal sometimes and telemetry wont go out unless you confirm you want it to. I personally have it disabled, but its not invasive.

Looking at your history, you really hate Ubuntu u/RmDebArc_5, don't you?

I don’t hate Ubuntu, it used to be my favorite distro and I haven’t found anything that really replaces it. I hate Canonical for destroying my favorite distro
- Debian 12 is the best destination after Ubuntu if you're switching because you hate stupid Canonical things. I switched a few months ago and it was really easy and has been awesome.
- Linux Mint?

Telemetry is significantly less invasive than on windows or Mac, and is completely optional during installation, after which you will never be asked to turn it on again

What? Is that so? What happened with ubuntu?

It snapped
- I clapped

https://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php

Damn, guess I should go back to Windows /s

what telemetry?

Which version of Ubuntu you’re installing (including which flavour), Whether you have network connectivity, Hardware stats, including CPU, RAM, GPU, etc, Your device vendor (e.g., Dell, Lenovo, etc), Your country (based on the time zone you pick, not IP), How long your install took to complete, Whether you have auto login enabled, Your disk layout (how many hard drives and partitions you have), Whether you chose to install third party codecs, Whether you chose to download updates during install

(According to OMG!Ubuntu) Most distros offer optional telemetry, but Ubuntu’s is opt out not opt in (for GNOME you have to separately install the telemetry)
- Ubuntu’s is opt out not opt in
  
  I haven't installed ubuntu in a while, but in EU you need to have prior consent from the user to gather any kind of data and if I remember correctly I haven't seen such thing. And it's not enough to bury that into documentation and say 'if you use our software you allow us to blah blah', you must get consent via an action from the user which spesifically allows that, so if telemetry comes silently with 'apt dist-upgrade' it's not enough.
- That sounds surprisingly tame list.

Hannah Montana Linux, huh? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aotzo4tyvM4

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://www.piped.video/watch?v=Aotzo4tyvM4

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Thought for sure that was gonna be the MJD video. How wrong I was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdRSq9cetVY
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  https://www.piped.video/watch?v=LdRSq9cetVY
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

Oh no...

Why would they do this to themselves?! Why?!

Telling people about in-house programs in this manner is fine imo. If it was third party stuff I'd leave Ubuntu, but as it stands it's still a great distro.

"You're right Mr. CMO! The frogs are warming up!"

First the deliberate there/their BS on the other post, and now literally ? Yeah you’re definitely a real user with no other motivations whatsoever. Fuck off shill