Ubuntu's New Terminal 'Ad' is Angering Users (omgubuntu.co.uk) 106
Joey Sneddon, reporting at OMG! Ubuntu: In September I tweeted a screenshot of something unexpected that has started to show up in the terminal when I ran system updates. It didn't enrage me at the time (and it kinda still doesn't) but I did find it a little ... Off. Now, if you're suitably tuned-in to the Linux newswire and/or an avid attendee of social media you'll probably heard about the drama in question. If you haven't, then allow me to... Yes, the furore is over an "ad" for Ubuntu Pro, Canonical's revamped support offering that replaces/augments Ubuntu Advantage (which has been around for many years) that appears in the terminal when managing system updates.
Other people are calling it an "ad" (hence quote marks). I prefer the term plug (which, it turns out, some people aren't familiar with; it means to mention something in order to promote it). For although this sentence is technically advertising something, in this case Ubuntu Pro, the offering itself is free for regular users (on up-to five devices). Thus, it's not like this is an "ad" that generates Canonical revenue. It's more akin to a public service announcement to raise awareness.
Other people are calling it an "ad" (hence quote marks). I prefer the term plug (which, it turns out, some people aren't familiar with; it means to mention something in order to promote it). For although this sentence is technically advertising something, in this case Ubuntu Pro, the offering itself is free for regular users (on up-to five devices). Thus, it's not like this is an "ad" that generates Canonical revenue. It's more akin to a public service announcement to raise awareness.
Don't change anything, ever (Score:2, Flamebait)
"Please hurry and make better technology" - Also Nerds.
Re:Don't change anything, ever (Score:5, Insightful)
"Please stop changing things just to change things or add advertisements." - Nerds
"Please hurry and make better technology" - Also Nerds.
FIFY
Re:Don't change anything, ever (Score:5, Insightful)
Spam never makes anything better.
It ruined usenet, it's made email nearly unbearable and only bearable with massive amounts of filtering, made having a phone super annoying, damn, billboards even make driving annoying, not to mention the pseudo-tollbooths at every stop light asking for money....
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it's indeed a bad idea that this collective overreaction may, scratch that, will make even worse.
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> Spam never makes anything better.
With one exception: Lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, garnished with truffle pa^te', brandy, and a fried egg on top.
https://youtu.be/_bW4vEo1F4E?t... [youtu.be]
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Thanks
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Needs a mod for sadly insightful.
Re:Don't change anything, ever (Score:4, Insightful)
If only "changes" actually resulted in "better". The trend over the past decade seems to be change for change sake, but no real interest in efficient UIX design ( or indeed, even awareness thereof ).
To such an extent that many common tasks are now harder to accomplish today ( or rather, more steps ) than 10 years ago.
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I am of the opinion that where Windows is concerned 2000 had the absolute best interface. Everything since then has been to make it prettier at the expense of functionality.
As a KDE user I still think 1.x was probably the best thing ever. Neon is nice, but most of what fell between was bug-additions.
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100% agreed on win2k. They keep "adding" things, and they keep making things worse. Two control panels? Weirdly placed buttons to change users at login? Multiple install wizards for different MS products?
It's just a mess.
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It's why I use XFCE, usually with the compositor disabled.
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I am of the opinion that where Windows is concerned 2000 had the absolute best interface. Everything since then has been to make it prettier at the expense of functionality.
As a KDE user I still think 1.x was probably the best thing ever. Neon is nice, but most of what fell between was bug-additions.
I'm actually fairly happy with the latest Gnome stuff.
I think in the early 2000s people fell into the trap of trying to make the Desktop Environment a fancy application in its own right, and the current Gnome feels minimalist in a good way.
What do I want a desktop environment to do? Make it easy to open applications, manage the applications and windows I do have open, and make notifications appropriately visible. It's actually not a lot.
Actually, the one thing I don't like with the latest Gnome is the spawn
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I just don't like the Gnome file managers and default interface. In KDE if I save a file to a directory, the next time I click on a file to save it will go back to the last one I saved in. Gnome stuff goes to ~ EVERY SINGLE TIME. Gnome file navigation feels like early Windows 95 to me. With the KDE stuff it feels powerful.
Yes I know I can replace one thing with another whatever - default QT just feels better to me that default GTK.
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Perfect example. Ubuntu desktop and Ubuntu for arm (Raspberry Pi). The same distro and same release number. Do you think setting a static ip address via the command line is the same on these two systems? Think again. If you're googling for how do something on Linux you better set your search filter for anything a year old or less. Results from 2011? No way is it accurate anymore. Results from 2015? Unlikely. Results from 2018? There's a good chance it will work. Results from 1 year ago is probably correct.
M
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Agreed. Any time I google anything technical I set it for within the last year, because anything older is likely to be wrong. But this does not make me mad. I realize it comes with the territory when using so much free-as-in-beer software. I've contributed to a few things, but not nearly as much as they've contributed to me. :)
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Client Engineer: So let me get this right. I upgraded and lost functionality?
Support Engineer: (Ponders for a second.) Yep! Pretty much...
Never been a fan of straight Ubuntu (Score:2)
I really hope this shit doesn't creep downstream....
I've been having my own apt-issues lately - POST THE FIX for the spam thing just in case.
Re:Never been a fan of straight Ubuntu (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux Mint, and it's good
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Linux Mint, and it's good
This. I switched from Ubuntu to Linux Mint when they "Macified" the UI and haven't looked back. Linux Mint is definitely the distro for an "everyday use" Linux.
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KDE Neon.
Most other distros compile everything against GTK even when KDE is the default. KDE Neon basically takes Ubuntu and recompiles everything it can against QT.
Netrunner was good, then it had a massive brain fart, moved the good Distro to Maui, which then shit the sheets, became Netrunner again or some shit, and generally drove me off for being schizophrenic. Yeah, before KDE Neon that/those were the only good KDE distro, and they couldn't seem to stay on target.
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It is ABSOLUTELY what I was doing.
The text I didn't expect was something along the lines of 32x32 Font not found.
Turns out the apt-mirror command is lacking. It is known that is lacking. No one is actually bothering to fix it.
I have a system I am prohibited from putting online by management, but I still have to update it with APT. I did massive amounts of troubleshooting trying to get a working offline APT, and I did eventually do it, but it requires running wget AFTER running apt-mirror.
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apt-mirror is a third-party script that has nothing to do with apt proper, and its original author is no longer maintaining it, hence why it's broken.
Yes they took the wrong approach (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not about whether it's an "ad" or not. The system shouldn't display crap like this on a running machine. If they want to inform or push things then send emails or external something like that.
Infecting an actual running OS install with useless garbage like this is beyond dumb.
Anyway, this is the least of things to be worried about with Ubuntu. What about the proprietary store? Removing network installer ISO's? The spying? Snap?!
Location, Location, Location... (Score:1)
I think it's more about where it is appearing, which is the midst of the output of a running process, which can be confusing. Perhaps at the top of the window instead?
No, it's not a public service announcement (Score:5, Insightful)
It's an ad, plain and simple.
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Re:No, it's not a public service announcement (Score:5, Insightful)
It is pretty cut and dry.
advertisement
noun: advertisement; plural noun: advertisements
a notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy.
An ad is still an ad no matter how much you change the word or try to disguise the fact.
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Ad is for promoting your own products, or a third party you hire to do the promoting. A "plug" is a customer or other unaffiliated third party promoting a product. Hard to differentiate at times. "I like Ike" is a plug, unless Ike is saying it or paying someone to say it.
The iffy area comes from fanboys and the like when their sheer devotion to a product seems a bit over the top and appears indistinguishable from ads. (I'd give an example, like Rust or Uber or Prime, but I'm afraid it might offend someon
Re:No, it's not a public service announcement (Score:5, Interesting)
They very clearly explained why it's not plain and simple. Now, that isn't to say it is/isn't an ad. But, it isn't cut and dry.
The very clear explanation is wrong.
A "plug" is something that entertainers do during a performance. A podcaster or comedian will "plug" their friend or even their own show as promotion. It's different from an ad because it's done in an informal context.
On the other hand "a public service announcement" is making an announcement that is primarily for the benefit of the person receiving the message, not the one giving it. "Ubuntu X is losing updates in Y months so make sure to upgrade to the latest version!" might actually qualify as a PSA since it's purpose it to warn the user of the support period ending.
This on the other hand:
Try Ubuntu Pro beta with a free personal subscription on up to 5 machines.
Learn more at https://ubuntu.com/pro [ubuntu.com]
Is most definitely an ad. It's an ad for their own product, but an ad nonetheless.
Honestly, I think it really annoys me for two reasons:
1) The phrasing is awful. It reminds me of freeware and shareware from back in the 90s where you got a crippled version that would periodically nag you to get the full paid version.
2) I wouldn't hate a mention of "Ubuntu Pro" in some little graphical dialogue or even in small text on the login screen, but the Terminal is for business. Sticking an ad there seems downright sacrilegious.
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The very clear explanation is wrong.
The very clear explanation in the summary wasn't outright saying it wasn't an ad. They're saying they prefer the term plug due to the connotation. It was, again, a clear explanation why it wasn't just an ad.
A "plug" is something that entertainers do during a performance.
No, a plug is not as specific as you claim. This does classify for being a plug. However, the definition of plug just basically comes down to advertise. What matters is the connotation applied. I'm not one to care about the nuance of the connotation there, but TFS was. I was using it as reference for wh
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Bing is a free service, is it a PSA when Microsoft shows you an ad for Bing? The purpose of Ubuntu Pro being free to make money from enterprise users.
It's clearly not a PSA, it's an ad. And while I have no objection to self-advertising in distros, apt-get is nearly the stupidest possible place for an ad.
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I wouldn't hate a mention of "Ubuntu Pro" in some little graphical dialogue or even in small text on the login screen, but the Terminal is for business. Sticking an ad there seems downright sacrilegious.
See I am not sure I agree. I don't want my OS putting ads anywhere out of box. I'll stick with Slackware at home for as long as Pat can keep it up. However I would find a little graphical dialog that I have to shift focus to and dismiss or look at in my system tray for the duration far more infuriating then what Ubuntu did here.
This is a lot like putting ads in motd or issue; which people have been doing on shared systems since the dinosaurs with 'digital' stamped on their cases roamed the earth. I think t
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I wouldn't hate a mention of "Ubuntu Pro" in some little graphical dialogue or even in small text on the login screen, but the Terminal is for business. Sticking an ad there seems downright sacrilegious.
See I am not sure I agree. I don't want my OS putting ads anywhere out of box. I'll stick with Slackware at home for as long as Pat can keep it up. However I would find a little graphical dialog that I have to shift focus to and dismiss or look at in my system tray for the duration far more infuriating then what Ubuntu did here.
This is a lot like putting ads in motd or issue; which people have been doing on shared systems since the dinosaurs with 'digital' stamped on their cases roamed the earth. I think the approach here is a lot more inline with historical norms than not.
Not in the system tray or something commonly visible, but the graphical update thingy when you let the clicky bits do the update, I wouldn't hate a small blurb / link there.
As for where the ad shows, I guess I see the CLI as being the core of Linux as opposed to the GUI that's kinda stapled on top (and there's a lot more junk), there's not technical basis for that, but it just feels like a more of an encroachment.
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It's an ad. It might be a relevant ad because you're the target user, but it is technically an ad.
But if you're so up in arms about it, why aren't you complaining about ads in other software? VIM until recently advertised for support for Ugandan children when you ran it. I'm sure there are plenty of other programs out there with similar pledges that have been made, though usually they tucked it away hidden in the usage or about screen as appropriate.
It's not unusual for software to ask users for a beer or a
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Looking at the Ubuntu Pro website, the only difference is that the LTS versions get security updates for more packages.
In other words they have a different package repo that they keep more up to date with security fixes, leaving the free users to be vulnerable.
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Unless you're already paying big money for Ubuntu licenses, I'm not sure that this is really worth complaining about. Ubuntu has always had weird messages about patches and whatnot on their motd screen.
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It is misleading (Score:3)
The reason people are upset is not so much that it is there, but it is misleading (it implies you will not get any security updates for Ubuntu) and trying to use fear to get people to subscribe to Pro.
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Yes but those additional updates are not relevant for 5 years.
The wording implies you will not get any additional future updates in the immediate future.
It is very, very poor wording, and is misleading, either on purpose or otherwise.
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It is very, very poor wording, and is misleading, either on purpose or otherwise.
I guess that was really my point. It seems, to me, to be more an issue due to brevity than malice. But yes, it definite doesn't come across well.
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It shouldn't be there in the first place. Linux is big business now and don't kid yourself that people won't try and exploit it to make a buck. I open up config files and the text tells me to not edit them anymore. resolv.conf and grub.conf for example. Excuse me? I'd like to set my own DNS servers without some daemon that changes names every release telling me it knows better.
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No. They are upset because it's an advert. I've seen lots of rage over this and your example is precisely the first time I've seen this false implication take. Don't look for conspiracies where there are none. The advert says "additional future security updates". Nothing about it implies that what you're getting now is in any way reduced.
"You'll probably heard" Slashdot has editors (Score:2, Insightful)
The camel's nose... (Score:3)
Right now, this isn't an issue. In fact, it might be a good thing because the Pro subscription brings with it FIPS certification, where in the past only Red Hat had this available.
However, we all have seen a couple lines, or a small ad bar turn into full screen takeovers, paywalls, malvertising by third parties, a screen made unusable due to all the videos playing, and so on. This is why people are concerned. It is doubtful that Ubuntu will start having unskippable ads in the OS, but after seeing USENET, and many other decent places turn into absolutely useless places due to ads, being concerned is valid.
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Right now, this isn't an issue. In fact, it might be a good thing...
LOL. Remember when Microsoft released an advertisement as a Windows critical security update? They said it qualified as a security update because, as they saw it, their new products are more secure than the old versions. Yep... advertisements are now essential for your safety!
"free for regular users (on up-to five devices)" (Score:2)
If that's all it is, don't look at iOS! (Score:2)
I agree that it's a "plug", put in where it's relevant (during updates), without being totally "in your face".
But if people are getting really upset at this, they better stay the hell away from Windows 11 and iOS: Adware Edition [stevestreza.com]
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Re: If that's all it is, don't look at iOS! (Score:1)
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I agree that it's a "plug"
It's an advertisement, we don't need those in the OS.
But if people are getting really upset at this, they better stay the hell away from Windows 11 and iOS: Adware Edition [stevestreza.com]
Ah yes a healthy dose of whataboutism will cure what ails ya!
They are doing it wrong. (Score:4, Insightful)
They need to have a giant pop-up that says Subscribe to Ubuntu Daily News every time you open up a terminal.
It IS an Ad, but it should be fine (Score:5, Interesting)
Thus, it's not like this is an "ad" that generates Canonical revenue. It's more akin to a public service announcement to raise awareness.
It is an AD, and Raising awareness of Pro's existence WILL increase awareness of the product among people who will Ultimately exceed 5 devices, And thus CAN be expected to increase Canonical's revenue.
HOWEVER, It is Also an Innocuous Ad. It's completely understandable that the FOR-PROFIT Company sponsoring a Free/Open Source product would like to Include some verbiage in the free product Advertising/Encouraging people to buy their services.
This doesn't really Detract from the free product in any way, And I suppose you can remove the advertising if you want, So I don't see why it would be objectionable.
Yes; It would become annoying if they were to insert A lot of this advertising, and
Not provide a way to turn it off... might be a reason to say Switch to something else... But it's fine if there is just a minimal amount, Or if they give an option to manually switch off the advertising in a User preference.
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> HOWEVER, It is Also an Innocuous Ad. It's completely understandable that the FOR-PROFIT Company sponsoring a Free/Open Source product would like to Include some verbiage in the free product Advertising/Encouraging people to buy their services.
Seriously. I run Debian, so I don't see it, but if I had to run Ubuntu for something I would never expect that they would never mention their commercial services.
Maybe users are confusing Ubuntu for a nonprofit.
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I think the problem here is really expectation based.
Linux users don't expect ads. It is not like Ubuntu makes a better product than all the other distros that don't do this sort of thing, so it is not like this is really unwarranted.
Also, they put it in the Terminal? That is just going too far. You cannot put ads in a terminal.
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I keep reading this that they put ads in the terminal. I asked a question earlier but never got an answer. The ad is not inserted by the terminal; it's a message displayed through apt, correct?
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Yes, That appears to be what everyone is saying.
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Linux users don't expect ads. It is not like Ubuntu makes a better product than all the other distros that don't do this sort of thing, so it is not like this is really unwarranted.
They're getting Ads not from normal use of the distro, but from using tools like Apt which utilize the additional Update services Canonical provides which ARE better than the software update and support people get from other distros. I think you can still use your system all day without ads, But when you are connecting to Ca
Isn't this message displayed by apt? (Score:1)
The summary seems to imply that the terminal application is injecting ads into the text. This does not seem to be the case as near as I can see. This is "ad" is a message displayed by apt is it not?
Anyway, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Linux users already have a reputation of acting entitled, and I think the reaction to this just reinforces that. I'll be modded down for saying this of course.
Would it bother me if yum or dnf printed out a message about the possibility of a paid update subscription
OFFS!! (Score:1)
Some people are "enraged" over just about ANYTHING! Sheesh! This is just a big "Nothingburger." Move along.
Move to Antix Linux (Score:2)
Of course it's an ad (Score:2)
Advertisement doesn't mean you're immediately generating revenue from it, it means that your advertising something. Clearly, this is a fucked up thing to do by Canonical, but they've been trying to become Microsoft for a while already so I don't think it should come as much of a surprise. It's just one more sign that it is time to abandon Canonical to the Moloch and move on to another distro.
Fedora Ubuntu (Score:2)
sorry but promotions are ads (Score:4, Insightful)
promotions and ads are the same. They both advertise something and in most cases are unwanted.
I don't know why they bother because I will never click on an ad or purchase anything because of the ad. In fact, they tend to push me away from the product or announcement.
Storm in a teacup (Score:2)
This is a small note for their own free security service relevant to the current OS within apt.
It's nothing at all like the ads they were running in the MOTD a few years ago which were advertising a separate product on a completely different system. You know, because I want to be told I should install microk8s on macOS when I log into my linux machine.
Confusing as hell (Score:2)
Sysadmins of large Ubuntu deployments? Assuming they are competent, why would they need the Pro subscription?
Non-technical users who have found themselves in terminal using apt-get because a random google result on stackoverflow told them too? Possibly, but they are unlikely to need to buy a subscription.
Or is this just something pushed by som
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Why would competence detract from someone's wish for longer term security updates to more packages? That's what pro is.
Also, you'll find some less technical people using apt because the graphical updater is so damned slow it might as well be broken on an older PC. Would you rather spend 10 minutes using the GUI or 5 seconds on the CLI?
Yes, Ubuntu is Evil, Now. Has been for some years. (Score:2)
Meanwhile on my Debian Install (Score:3)
I'm sitting, eating popcorn and watching this thing fold out on Slashdot as I read comments on my Debian install. The bucket of popcorn finished, so here I am posting now.
Seriously. Canonical is a company. They have to make money somehow. This is not even going as far as RedHat does with not being able to download compiled updates from them without a service contract. Don't like a couple of lines of ads in your "apt upgrade"? Change your distro. You didn't pay for it. It was free. Go to Debian, which is upstream from Ubuntu. So you're hurt because you use a distro that's downstream from Ubuntu? That's on you, That's what you get when you like things to be easy instead of installing a base distro and adding on to it what you want, which BTW is very, very easy nowadays. Folks today have no idea what it was like in 2000 to get some software installed in your Linux distribution.
I see three use cases for using Ubuntu: 1) You need support, so you pay Canonical 2) You want longer support cycles 3) You are lazy.
Ubuntu has never not been shit. (Score:2)
Remember when they sold Amazon searches and other dollar store brand mickeysoft behavior? Fuck Canonical, they're even worse than Redhat ever was and they were corporate whores from the start too.
Linux is not freedom anymore (Score:1)
Clumsily worded (Score:3)
I think there's a lot of value in informing people in advance about EOL dates somewhere obvious and what their options are.
If it said something like:
I think it would be rather useful.
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Well-said.
I find direct product plugs a little icky in open source software -- but the approach you outlined there wouldn't bug me, and Yes, would be useful.
Micro-rant: Breadcrumbs that lead to more information go missing all to often in the FOSS world; maybe it's because the often-correct perception is that anyone who cares enough or is likely to benefit from deeper information will also know how to find it anyhow, so why make it any easier? Doesn't take malice, and indifference might be too harsh. Just me
Ubuntu Server editions vs. Desktop (Score:2)
If someone runs Ubuntu Server LTS editions, they should be 100% free of desktop garbage. Even on Desktop, the Terminal is a sacred place.
Imagine if Microsoft did this in Command Prompt or Powershell. Wait. Never mind. Pretend I didn't say anything. The last thing we need is some Microsoft PM catching wind of this idea and further ruining Windows.
motd-news (Score:2)
I've been getting the following on my 20.04.5 LTS system:
* Super-optimized for small spaces - read how we shrank the memory footprint of MicroK8s to make it the smallest full K8s around.
https://ubuntu.com/blog/microk... [ubuntu.com]
You can disable this in /etc/default/motd-news. Is this Pro message controlled the same way?
Ubuntu is not trustworthy (Score:2)
Data leakage, data collection, ads... Use a different distro, there is nothing special about Ubuntu that makes it worth this level of disrespect of their users.
It's an ad (Score:2)
Joey Sneddon, quit dancing around -- It's an ad
And it's perfectly fine for Ubuntu to have one - it's https://ubuntu.com/ [ubuntu.com] -- a commercial company -- after all. Not debian.org
Ubuntu is not a real OS (Score:2)
Ubuntu knows it won't be a real operating system until they can include a Candy Crush icon in the menu by default!
It's an Ad and was very ill advised (Score:1)
I'm in the process of moving away from Ubuntu as a result. When there are plenty of alternatives why do they pull this sort of stunt? The only acceptable place would be in the initial installer.
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Likewise.
This advertisement (all plugs are advertisements) is a solid indicator that they've allowed very poor decision makers get final say on what gets built into core tools in the deployments.
Thankfully this was just a red warning flag, and not an actual catastrophe. But the situation where technical decision making is done by marketing is not conducive to actual reliable and secure systems.
Shell-script one-liner get rid of it? Anyone? (Score:2)
EOM
system utilities should output system messages (Score:3)
How is this different from Java Install? (Score:1)
It's no different than that. You get Java info while Installing Java. So you get Ubuntu info when updating Ubuntu.
OMG (Score:2)
The makers (packagers?) of a free operating system reminds users of their premium (not free) offering and the outrage is palpable. Why?
I see a lot of "might" and "could" not a lot of "does" cause problems for scripts/automation. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but this doesn't strike me as a serious problem.
Too many people act like this is an "ad-enabled" version of Ubuntu, like the lower-priced Amazon "ad-enabled" Fire Tablets, and it just isn't.