Month: August 2009

Christopher Tozzi reported,

Beginning a couple of weeks ago, individuals testing the next release of Ubuntu, which will appear in stable form in October, found that performing a Google search from within the Firefox toolbar or from Ubuntu’s start page led to a custom results page with a modified interface. A vague wiki entry about the new feature describes it as part of an “experiment” to collect data about user search habits and send them back to Ubuntu developers, ostensibly in order to “lead into work that can try to reduce the time spent when searching. This discovery prompted an angry response in bug reports and an Ubuntu forums thread, where developers were blasted for unilaterally implementing a feature with questionable consequences for user privacy.

What we expect is communication and transparency from a Free and Open Source company and project. The issue is not the multisearch, the issue is doing something to our project without asking or letting us know. Ubuntu is suppose to be about community, and Linux is something you do with the community, not to the community. It is that feeling of it not being our distribution that is the problem. Once the community loses the feeling of ownership, the community will go elsewhere.

The following are just a few suggestions for future changes:
1. Communicate, communicate, communicate. The key to any relationship is communication.
2. Communicate what you want to do, why you want to do it.
3. If it deals with money, privacy, or freedom of choice be especially careful.
4. Have us opt in to those kinds of things, not opt out.
5. Make suggestion on it and get community feedback before implementing it.
6. Try to gain consensus whenever at all possible. At least try.
7. After you mess up, give an apology with a plan to prevent future events of this kind.

LINKS

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/08/14/multisearch-in-ubuntu-910-karmic-koala-alpha-privacy-concerns/comment-page-1/#comment-5333
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Multisearch
http://www.asoftsite.org/s9y/archives/162-What-is-this-Multisearch-thing-in-my-Firefox-about.html
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.5/+bug/402767
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/402767/comments/87
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1219501

The system beep on my computer is way too loud and is really annoying. To permanently disable it, type the following in the terminal:

echo “blacklist pcspkr” | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

To put it into effect, type the following in the terminal:

sudo modprobe -r pcspkr

When you log off you should no longer hear the beep. It works at least on Ubuntu 9.04.

The following comments from an anonymous commenter on the I’ Been to Ubuntu blog was so good I am reposting it.

Anonymous said…

I don’t think the six month release cycle is a big problem only the way they are implementing it.
LTS Release – unfortunately they try to cram in new features and “tear out and replace large parts of the system”. The LTS Release should be a bugfix only release. The goal should be stability above all.
release right after LTS – This is the time to replace major parts of the system. xorg, network manager, and pulse audio are all examples of what this release should be about. Firefox and OpenOffice are not Major parts of the system. They are major software packages that do not cause instability. Also a good time to introduce new features. This release should be known for breaking things and instability.
two releases from LTS – continued introduction of new features. but a larger focus on bugs.
three releases from LTS – a few new features but most time should be focused on major bug fixes and focusing on stability.
LTS – nothing but bug fixes. Stability is the goal…
They have a good thing going but every release has huge issues. I have stopped updating right away when new releases come out. I have actually dumped Ubuntu all together because it has turned into an absolute unstable distribution. It would be nice to see a real “stable” version of Ubuntu.

http://blog.ibeentoubuntu.com/2009/07/mythbuntu-and-mint-developers-pans.html
posted on July 15, 2009 11:06 AM