Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-Installed 646
An anonymous reader writes "Scheduled to be released next month, Ubuntu 12.10 now includes both Amazon ads in the user's dash and by default an Amazon store in the user's launcher. The reason for these 'features'? Affiliate revenue. Despite previous controversies with Banshee and Yahoo, Canonical is 'confident it will be an interesting and useful feature for our 12.10 users.' But are the 'users' becoming products?"
Update: 09/22 19:35 GMT by T : Reader bkerensa scoffs, calling the Amazon integration unobtrusive, and says objections to its inclusion in the OS should be ignored, "because in reality ads will not be found in 12.10 unless you are seeing them on a third party website you go to in a web browser." He's got screenshots.
I see (Score:5, Insightful)
Mass migration in 3...2...1...
Honestly not that bad (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, then (Score:0, Insightful)
Fuck you, Ubuntu.
Re:Profit! (Score:5, Insightful)
But are the 'users' becoming products? (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's a hint: if you're not paying for it, you are the product.
This has very obviously been Microsoft's business model for operating systems from the very beginning: they don't sell the OS to you, they sell you to the OEMs.
Re:Easily disabled (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I see (Score:5, Insightful)
you mean the second one, of those people remaining after the Unity / GNOME3 rendered any concept of multi-task workflow useless
stick a fork in Canonical, they are done
Two points here (Score:4, Insightful)
2) However what I know for sure is that this feature is likely to be US-only (unfortunately for those international Ubuntu users who prefer buying their music instead of pirating them), as is much of Amazon's stock. I mean, come on. I know that overseas shipping of physical items is hard, but working out the paperwork with the studios for selling a damn file? How hard can that be?
He who pays, owns. (Score:4, Insightful)
This is not just annoying, it's the beginning of the end of Ubuntu as free software. No matter how unobtrusive the ads are, if Amazon is paying Ubuntu, Ubuntu is bound to become dependent on that cash stream, which means Amazon controls what happens to Ubuntu. And Amazon has shown little interest in the future of free software.
Now, this isn't entirely a new thing: companies like IBM and Google have been paying for Linux development (in the form of hiring Linux developers) for years. But when an entire distro is financially captured by the biggest online retailer on the planet... that's something new.
Re:But are the 'users' becoming products? (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's a hint: if you're not paying for it, you are the product.
I do not pay for this:
https://www.scientificlinux.org/ [scientificlinux.org]
Somehow, I do not think that Fermilab or CERN view me as the product.
ubuntu forgets the one thing (Score:5, Insightful)
all the people who run it, but never paid, are not "freeloaders", they are the massive user base that gave the Ubuntu distro momentum and pushed it to the top of linux distros. they got it into the corporate workplace (my employer uses Ubuntu), they make the helpful forum posts, etc.
your monetizing needs to be done outside of those people, it's done with services, support, add-ons for the corporate environment, etc.
So you donated? Or just pretend? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Two points here (Score:4, Insightful)
no, Ubuntu's only viable option for cash flow is larger acceptance into corporate workplace. The huge user base is what got them to the top & to be noticed. if they cut that off (continue the mass exodus that Unity started), then there will be no one pushing it in the corproate environment and Canonical will die. good riddance.
Re:I see (Score:4, Insightful)
after the Unity / GNOME3 rendered any concept of multi-task workflow useless
What's "useless" about it? It works just fine here...
Re:Easily disabled (Score:4, Insightful)
Just open up a terminal? My grandma is not going to "just open up a terminal". That doesn't count as "trivial to remove", sorry.
You almost had me, but everyone knows that anonymous cowards don't have parents.
Seriously though, if you didn't set up your Grandma's machine to be remotely administered by you when you installed it, then you probably aren't qualified to be using slashdot. Or a web browser. Or a computer. Or your thumbs. You log in remotely, you run the command, the problem goes away. Also, if your grandmother can't click the terminal, copy and paste the command, and answer yes to any prompts, then she probably shouldn't have Ubuntu. She should probably have Android, or even iOS. She needs her hand held. There's nothing wrong with that, and it should be accounted for. How do you think this theoretical grandmother (since we've already established that you don't have one, since there is no you) would react to Windows crapware? You think she could figure out how to remove programs from Windows 7 or 8? You think she could manage to uninstall the right thing? Give it a rest.
Re:Is it only in Unity? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's Linux.
You can disable any adverts easily, and run the WM of your choice WITHOUT switching distros.
You aren't stuck with defaults as you are with Windows.
Re:I see (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Honestly not that bad (Score:4, Insightful)
And, as long as it isn't too obtrusive in the UI,
surely you mean, "as long as I can easily uninstall it"? I'm not one to complain about Canonical trying to generate revenue, and I'd leave the ads there initially, but if they annoy me, I want to option to easily remove them. Otherwise... new distro!
Re:I see (Score:5, Insightful)
This is Linux. Distro is a proper subset of Settings.
Unity's pretty good (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought that all features (which use compositing) weren't enabled when you used a VM. Maybe it would have been different if you tried it on a separate partition on the bare metal.
Anyway, as a non-noob user (developer) I'm here to say that Unity as of 12.04 is pretty good for power users and developers.
From my perspective, Unity is pretty good for multitasking workflows. In the earlier versions, Unity was useless for multiple workspaces because you could basically only have one copy of a program usefully running.
In the current version, there are indicators that tell you if one copy of a program is running, or two, or more. And if it's on the current workspace or not.
Although I had thought that I would hate it, it's actually pretty good, because 95% of the time you want to work with the apps, files, and programs you were most recently working with. Also, the Alt+Tab and Alt+` works well. They're basically integrated together so you can move out of one mode to the other (once you're in Alt+Tab or Alt+` mode, try using the arrow keys).
Also, one misapprehension I had about Unity was that youd have a huge number of icons down the left side. But since you only have one icon per program (instead of per window), it's not bad.
Finally, you should install Cardapio [google.com]. It gives you a hierarchical (organized by category) menu of applications so you don't have to know the name of app before you search for it (a major complaint about Unity).
Re:Uninstall? (Score:4, Insightful)
Because you're not "making use of" the system, you're abusing it.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I see (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly, I think there's just a bunch of old timers that just object to everything that isn't GNOME 2 or KDE 3. To them that was the high point in desktop environments. They simply need to get over themselves.
Complain now, or you will get overrun by ads!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm going to give you some advice. This is based on history.
If you do NOT complain about the ads in Ubuntu now it's going to get worse. Way worse. This is a toe testing the water. Make the water way the fuck too cold now. If not, you will find, in probably a year, the every linux distro will have ads, and not only in small places. It will ruin linux.
You think I'm wrong? oh no, the greed of the people say this will not stop and only get worse.
This will ruin linux for ever. People will associate linux with ads. MS will say, by a Ad Free OS, not Ad Infested Linux. And worse, Linux distros will start selling Ad Free versions.