Ubuntu 16.04 Will Not Send Local Searches Over the Web By Default 102
jones_supa writes: Canonical introduced Amazon Product Results as part of Ubuntu 12.10, which meant that local searches performed by a user in Dash were also sent online. This made many Ubuntu users spill their coffee and got criticism from EFF and FSF as well. The so called "Shopping Lens" had to be manually disabled if that kind of search behavior was not desired. Finally after years, Canonical is reacting to the negative feedback and respecting users' privacy, so that Ubuntu 16.04 (the next Long Term Support release) won't send local searches over the web by default. The Amazon search feature is still available for those who explicitly want to use it.
Really Canonical? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Really Canonical? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yeah, let's be honest... They had a disagreement with Amazon on payment for promotion, and this is their way of sticking it to Amazon. That's much more likely.
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People like you are never happy.
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I all seriousness, now if Microsoft would stop the insanity and return Windows to being just an OS instead an OS, spying and advertisement device I'd consider upgrading from Win 7.
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What happened? Is it not cool now that Windows is doing it too?
Probably sick of losing users to Mint -- as though the it has nothing to do with Unity itself.
Too late, assholes (Score:1)
Canonical will never regain my trust. The mere fact that they were capable of sending users' private data to their business partners means Ubuntu is dead for me.
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Canonical will never regain my trust. The mere fact that they were capable of sending users' private data to their business partners means Ubuntu is dead for me.
I'd understand claiming there was a breach of trust if they did this on the sly, but they didn't: it was common knowledge, easy to switch off, and only occurred if you used Unity. I fail to see what the problem is.
This is a stretch but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This is a stretch but... (Score:5, Interesting)
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I'd like to see a move away from the free model started across the industry. People may not balk at paying again if "every" service and product cost again. The change certainly would need to be an coordinated movement among competitors since the jumping ship from the X that now costs to the X that is still free would be a threat.
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I think it's even more silly when the facts are taken into account.
Canonical wasn't selling data, they gained no income by collecting search information. They WERE given a small commission from sales if the user accessed the Amazon website by clicking on an item in the Dash, and even then ONLY if the user proceeded to buy that product. At this point, Amazon already KNOWS you're on their site, they can directly collect data on that person. They no longer need Canonicals' data.
Plus, using the files or applica
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The default was the problem.
I can't be true (Score:4, Insightful)
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Canonical reacted to user feedback? That must be a first.
*Checks Gnome 3*
Nope, hell hasn't frozen over. Still not listening.
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What I like the lest about Gnome 3 is how they made it extremely hard to access many of the basic settings. For example, the last time I gave it a chance I was trying to play music on my laptop while I went to sleep(It's hard for me to sleep without music in the background). In order to keep the screen from glowing in my face I shut the lid and the music immediately stopped. I thought, oh I'll just tell it to not go into sleep mode when I
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Checks Mir. Checks SystemD. No.
Re: I can't be true (Score:1)
Get over it. systemd won and syslog and stderr lost.
Re: I can't be true (Score:5, Interesting)
Get over it. systemd won and syslog and stderr lost.
Actually, this can't be emphasized enough. Systemd is one of the few architectural initiatives emanating from Red Hat's ken that actually improves the operation of desktop systems. There was SO much broken power management in Linux before Upstart and then systemd came along it was like a never-ending joke (which users felt was being played on _them_). As a proponent of desktop PCs (not just Linux-based) I see improvements from systemd all over the system.
In many ways, Canonical is trying to pull the Linux desktop in the direction of OS X. That is not a bad thing as long as they understand that both Apple and MS have a lot of unexpressed rules about how to build and promote a consumer platform -- I think Canonical gets it and the rest absolutely do not. Their early move to ensure variations with alternate default DEs used different names was more important that many here probably realize. Their attention to hardware testing and certification was another thing they got (mostly) right. Assembling an SDK to attract new app developers was also a first-class move.
Canonical's big mistake? Exactly what the OP refers to: Over-commercializing to the point where privacy seems compromised. I'm glad they finally recognized this error. Where they could improve is to remove the *dependence* on local search... OS X never removed the old means of finding apps, which is an important avenue for users to visually discover what is available on a system. Ubuntu needs a hierarchical launch menu back, but the reason they're floundering here is probably because they never duplicated OS X's system of app bundles -- would be awesome if they did.
Good on 'em. (Score:1)
Welcome back, old friend. I'm glad they've changed their stance. Not happy it ever was their stance, but I'm glad they've changed it none the less. Keep up the good work Canonical!
Follow the money (Score:5, Insightful)
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Unity 8 was announced by Mark with privacy enabled by default, several months ago. And the reason was Snowden scandal, not money.
Unity 8 was expected to be the DE in Ubuntu 16.04, but it was delayed. But, at least, the promise to keep the privacy was not delayed.
hadn't thought it through in the first place (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously Canonical, didn't you have a meeting on this with the classic PRO vs CON list? Was it inconceivable that some would not like being tracked, even anonymously(if true) and a large portion of that population would be the geeks who you NEED? People, like geeks, who know what GNU/Linux is, why it is used and spread that far and wide and were using Ubuntu and promoting it if not developing for it. Pissing those people off and causing them to move to Debian for example was not a good idea.
Good to see 16.04 LTS will disable this next year but you really screwed the pooch as they say on this one.
Anonymous "I don't think that means what you think (Score:1)
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Or, if one is offended by misquotes: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Never even noticed it did this (Score:2)
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Unity only incorporates a couple mobile UI elements... The rest of the changes are riffing off of OS X and I think they do a pretty good job. The ample keyboard shortcuts (which are listed when you log in) are very PC and more specifically very Mac-like (Macs were never about chaining people to pointer inputs). The menus are similarly Mac-like, not like Android or iOS at all.
A mistake they made with Unity was cutting the user off from being able to hierarchically discover the available programs and utilitie
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In the end, people and companies just don't want to pay for anything if they can.
Companies will beg you to take their money if it supports something they care about. Having nobody to call when SHTF scares everyone from the bean counters to the IT trenches. This is why RedHat makes bank.
As a result, open source companies need to find other income streams and everybody tries to "opt-out" of that if they can.
If your new business model involves whoring out your integrity who is going to want to do business with you?
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RMS is one of my heroes, but he is too extreme on a few things.
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They just moved the functionality (Score:4, Funny)
It's been integrated into systemd.
This is too little, too late. (Score:2)
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Editors? Are you there? (Score:2)
My brain actually froze when I reached the quoted sentence above. After years what now? I normally don't respond to editing but this was a pretty bad one.
Maybe
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Some people have an iMac and only run the web browser on it.
I think Unity is fine for the same limited kind of use.
It's literally a left-side launcher for Firefox and Libre Office, and a bar for clock and wifi and shit.
Re:Is Ubuntu still a thing? (Score:4, Interesting)
Debian and Ubuntu are what, half of desktop Linux use?
Ubuntu has many editions that differ by the desktop they run, out of the box. Thus no need to set up a theme, configuration etc.
- Unity
- KDE
- Xfce
- LXDE
- Gnome 3
- Mate
Then there's Mint :
- Mint Cinnamon
- Mint Mate
- Mint Xfce
- Mint KDE
Then there's lesser known stuff out there.
I don't understand. It's like saying you don't like anchovies, so you won't eat pizza, while staring at a list of 10 anchovy-less pizzas.
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I'm an Arch user, but Ubuntu just seems to have things right most of the time, with release cycles, security updates, development. So they make a few mistakes, but they're willing to correct them and move on.
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