Ubuntu 13.04 Will Allow Instant Purchasing, Right From the Dash 273
sfcrazy writes "Ubuntu is becoming a shopping center. Instead of addressing the queries raised by Stallman and the EFF, Canonical is now pushing for making Ubuntu a shopping cart. With Ubuntu 13.04 Canonical is going one step forward, and soon you will be able to purchase software and music right from the Dash without opening the software center or web browser.This is intended to make the whole experience even more interactive and useful for the end user."
Unity (Score:5, Insightful)
As the Canonical developer's Unity DE shows, Canonical is not really that interested in the opinions of its current users.
And if you're unhappy... (Score:2, Insightful)
sigh... (Score:0, Insightful)
And so it begins.
HI bsd!
Re:Why is this a problem? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's one of those polarizing subjects. Some see absolutely no problem with this kind of thing, whilst others are mortified by it and can't understand why everyone else is ok with it. Both sides call each other idiots who "just don't get it" for whatever reason, no ones opinion changes, and life goes on.
It's their binary. (Score:4, Insightful)
How they want to compile it is their choice. That's the entire point of open source.
Good for Ubuntu and Some Users (Score:5, Insightful)
From the Canonical Blog Post [canonical.com] on the new feature:
Privacy is extremely important to Canonical. The data we collect is not user-identifiable (we automatically anonymize user logs and that information is never available to the teams delivering services to end users), we make users aware of what data will be collected and which third party services will be queried through a notice right in the Dash, and we only collect data that allows us to deliver a great search experience to Ubuntu users. We also recognize that there is always a minority of users who prefer complete data protection, often choosing to avoid services like Google, Facebook or Twitter for those reasons – and for those users, we have made it dead easy to switch the online search tools off with a simple toggle in settings.
So while I think the privacy concerns with sending data to Canonical when you'e doing searches is significant, so long as the user is aware and has the option, more power to them. I don't think I want to integrate my desktop and network search, but I certainly see a mass market that may want this. Depending upon how easy it is to create and configure these "scopes" to plug into this system it might be a great way to build customized searching without the need for Google to know everything about me.
I think people are too reactionary when it comes to both privacy and commercialism. From the previous posts you'd think this was a mandatory feature and Canonical was selling user data or something. They seem to be responsible players here creating cool tech that some of us may not want. I see nothing for me to get upset about.
This is a good thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Stallman has 1 point that's important... apk (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Unity (Score:5, Insightful)
MINT is going to get a lot of traffic.
ubuntu annoyed me enough over the last year or two that I've moved.
Re:Canonical current users? (Score:3, Insightful)
Or your private data?
Re:Unity (Score:5, Insightful)
Those should be the defaults, in my opinion.
Re:Why is this a problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Who uses Ubuntu anyway? Explanation: (Score:2, Insightful)
The boneheaded decisions of Canonical, plus the existence of Mint Linux, have all but decimated the Ubuntu userbase. Yes, I know there must be some Ubuntu users out there still, but they're somewhere at the fringe of society: you know nobody in your circle of friends, colleagues, family or acquaintances who uses Ubuntu.
It's like IE: who the fuck uses Internet Explorer at this stage? Yeah, there must be people using it, according to various webstats... but nobody know those characters.
IOW, Ubuntu has become the IE of the Linux distro world: they exist somewhere out there, but nobody gives a shit about them, except malware writers.
Linux Mint (Score:3, Insightful)
http://linuxmint.com/
Its also funny to note that install base of Ubuntu has taken a nose dive in the last year(two?). with mint taking up the slack.
I wonder why.
Re:Unity (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sorry to be overly blunt, but that is asnine. Ubuntu is integrating an app store to its DE, that's all. It's a convenience every other major OS already has (Windows, Android, OSX, iOS etc), only made a bit more convenient by not requiring you to open the store app. It's not the end of the world. As long as they stay firmly based on Debian, strenghtening Ubuntu strenghtens Linux and open source as a whole. The more market/mind share it gets, the better driver support we get, more attention from developers and so on.
So I wish Ubuntu lots of success. If I dislike a particular feature, I can either deactivate it in Ubuntu, use a different DE, jump ship to their source, Debian, directly, or a derivative that doesn't implement those functions, like Mint. I can even roll my own flavor of Ubuntu, since the source is public. Such plethora of alternatives is exactly what free/open software is all about and people bitching that Ubuntu is "turning their backs on open software" don't seem to understand it at all.
Re:Canonical current users? (Score:4, Insightful)
And Ubuntu is created by elves, they cost nothing to employ, singing joyous songs of open source and ideals while they work tirelessly just to satisfy you and your bunny world.
Re:Unity (Score:4, Insightful)
Ultimately, do you think the end users mind that their apps are closed source?
Most of the world's developer mind share is closed source. If you want your OS to be successful, you have to embrace developers. Which means you have to support both closed source and open source applications.
And you have to make it just as easy for both types of apps to be deployed as well. If unusual or extra steps are required to deploy a closed source app on your platform, most closed source devs will simply ignore it.
Most applications that are professionally designed, and do what users will want will be closed source, due to the cost. It is a minority of projects that are developed as open source -- most of them get funding from large corporations.
Linux itself is the exception to the rule rather than the rule.
Re:Canonical current users? (Score:4, Insightful)
No. Ubuntu is created by Debian, mostly.
Re:Unity (Score:4, Insightful)
> I'm sorry to be overly blunt, but that is asnine. Ubuntu is integrating an app store to its DE,
Except there is no technical or usability justification for such a thing.
Tools don't need to be "integrated". This is Unix where you can have a toolbox full of tools that all work together. You don't need to take the "microsoft office" approach to things.
In truth, the app stores on the other platforms don't need to be any more "integrated" than the Linux tools that they are knockoffs of.