The Dash Is Now Anonymized In Ubuntu 13.10 183
Last year, Canonical drew heat for the troublesome privacy implications that people like Richard Stallman saw in its in-built search-and-shopping facilities. An anonymous reader now writes "Long story short — Canonical now makes the user's data anonymous."
And then I got my eyes tested. (Score:5, Insightful)
typing a word in the Dash, pushes the word against (along with the locally-installed scopes) the Canonical servers, the Canonical servers decide the best results, the results are then anonymized and finally landed in the Dash.
The fuck? If you can't see any privacy implications here, you're a dilettante.
And anonymisation of results - what? If I search for "loli president bomb" then that's what's going to get me in trouble, not the results I receive.
No more privacy = anonymous?? (Score:4, Insightful)
Care to rephrase that, smitty?
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
The difference is that anonymity means they can still collect all your information, just not your identity. So, you're just one breech away from having all of your information spilled to them. What's more, when it comes to online services and such, the name isn't usually that important, they don't really know that my name is Sir Dragon King of the 4th order of New Castle.
Just because one is anonymous, does not mean that one has privacy, when I go out in public, I'm anonymous, but people can see everything that I do.
Re:And then I got my eyes tested. (Score:3, Insightful)
The fuck? If you can't see any privacy implications here, you're a dilettante.
This statement might carry a bit more weight if your standard garden-variety Slashdot reader didn't see privacy implications in bowls of alphabet soup.
Re:And then I got my eyes tested. (Score:5, Insightful)
Can you give an example of where a standard garden-variety Slashdot reader has incorrectly read privacy implications into something?
Ignore anyone who uses either the term "New World Order" or "reptilian".
Re:And then I got my eyes tested. (Score:2, Insightful)
If I search for "loli president bomb" then that's what's going to get me in trouble, not the results I receive.
As if the user-agent string wouldn't land you on the watchlist. That wasn't a joke [prisonplanet.com] by the way. And as far as the results you receive, you probably shouldn't trust those either [techdirt.com]. But let's set aside your awesome new indy band name Loli: President Bomb and focus on the real issue here: The gullibility of free software consumers. They are exactly as gullible as Windows and Macintosh users, it would seem: They're trusting an abstract organization that is continuing to collect personally-identifiable information, simply because said organization upon being caught doing so, has said "oops! Our bad. We'll anonymize the data now." And these people should know better [arstechnica.com] than to believe such claims.
Perhaps it is a sign of how far Linux has come into the mainstream then: It's become the microbrew of the IT world. All these new distributions, the promise of being trendy, geeky, and cool... and yet, suspiciously lacking in all of the things that made "Free as in freedom, not free as in beer" so appealing to the much smaller community of non-hipsters that was here before. Linux has finally made it to the big time: It's become "hip". And no surprise...Ubuntu, like many other major distributions, sees the chance at monetization and is taking it. Oh, I know... I'll get modbombed again for suggesting that the pure and noble Linux isn't like all the other operating systems out there... but then, wasn't that the goal all along? To create an alternative to closed source? Mission: Accomplished. Too bad success isn't what they thought it would look like.
Re:Ubuntu is a has-been. (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly, it's totally laughable all the fanboys telling Ubuntu users to switch to Mint. And when they get there, they have no Software Center (to Buy apps) and a truck load of Bugs added from hacking Ubuntu code. AC: Ubuntu is #3 on Distrowatch, that shows how much Minty FUD you spew. With Debian at #2 and rising. But DW isn't a real Survey, it's a click counter.
There is nothing wrong with Ubuntu, they have done more to put Linux on radar as a real alternative to Windows than any other distro. For me personally, I don't like or dislike Unity since I never tried it; I use Xubuntu. Instead of going to Mint, try the other official distros 1st, people seem to conveniently forget they can have the full Ubuntu experience without Unity. Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu etc. Canonical isn't Microsoft, they don't force you to use one GUI.
Don't take it the wrong way, but I feel Debian is for those who don't care to ride the current Desktop/Gaming Linux wave we are in. It's for the old hats who like living in the Stone Age of yesterday. But, if you know what you're doing you can add repos to bring it up to Ubuntu standards with all that proprietary goodness. Now OpenSuse is something Ubuntu fans should keep their eye on. Great community and one-click App installs, with a possible future involving a real App store where one could actually buy things like the Ubuntu Software Center.
Now, it's just my opinion, but I think Xubuntu is the best thing since Sliced Bread. As far as something a newbie or former Windows user (like myself) can feel right at home with, Xubuntu is very popular and probably second to regular Ubuntu. If something actually happened to Xubuntu, I'd probably roll a Debian/XFCE for my usage.
Not to mention, if you want to use Steam or any new game for that matter, Developers have pretty much chosen Ubuntu as the officially supported platform. So good luck trying to convince people of your opinion that Ubuntu sucks. But people of Slashdot, please don't forget about Desura. Desura not only has more games than Steam for Linux, but the ability to download them Stand-alone and they have a few AAA titles like Freespace 2 (with FS2 Open) and Fallout along with a few others. Desura also has a good lot of free games for download, something Steam is lacking and IMO, needs to add. Again, just my opinion, but who's to say that Valve doesn't have some sinister plan to go all Android on us with Steambox; and simply using Desktop Linux (and our faces) as a stepping stone?.
Re:Ubuntu is a has-been. (Score:5, Insightful)
You're right on 3, but
1) Many applications run faster on Ubuntu (and Linux in general), Steam for example. I've noticed Linux on my personal machine to be much faster than the Windows machines I've had to fix.
2) I've consistently seen Windows gag on many routine operations. I/O responsiveness on Linux is far more robust than on Windows. Flash causes the entire system to grind to a halt on Windows whereas Linux is still responsive enough to execute a killall plugin-container. Libreoffice on Linux just loads, whereas on Windows it causes the system to hang for several seconds while the libraries are loaded.
4) You may be right on this one as well, but Linux has several APIs and toolkits for all sorts of things - window toolkits, networking, and so on.... The only area where you're probably right on this one is stability in the graphics space.
Don't get me wrong, I doubt that desktop GNU/Linux will ever dominate the marketplace, but it's definitely not because of the technical merits of either platform - Linux is lightyears ahead of Windows, and always will be. Linux developers focus on making a good product; Microsoft is more of a marketing/legal company in the tech industry (a la Apple, Oracle), and they focus more of their efforts on licensing, lock-in/out, and general marketing than developing their core product. People don't have to choose Windows (from a technical standpoint) generally don't but Microsoft rarely gives them a choice.