Re: The number of etch installations is rocketing...
On to, 2007-04-12 at 12:16 +0200, Fabio Tranchitella wrote:
> * 2007-04-12 12:09, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> > As long as we don't use that to collect sensitive information, it would be
> > ok IMO. (Of course, a preseed question could avoid it completely too)
>
> I think Google Earth for Linux does the same, and IIRC the general
> agreement in the free software community was that it is a evil behavior.
>
> I may be wrong, I don't know, but in my opinion a ping to call back home
> even if the user said `No' is a evil behaviour and Debian should avoid it.
I agree. If the user says "no", we should do nothing.
However, changing the popcon debconf question to something like the
following might be an acceptable compromise:
Would you like to participate in the Debian package popularity
contest meter? Blah blah blah. You may also choose to only
report once that you have installed this release of Debian on a
new machine. In that case no other information from you or your
machine gets recorded.
[ ] No, I do not want to participate at all.
[ ] I want to report once that I have installed Debian.
[ ] I want to participate in the package popularity contest.
The new choice would then do something like generate a UUID for the
machine and do a single HTTP query to report it and the contents
of /etc/debian_version.
How does that sound?
--
Sadly, our technology is insufficiently advanced.
Reply to: