[Bug 2047778] Re: Software Updater unable to cancel Ubuntu Pro upgrade

[Adam]

This is extremely disappointing and alarming. In my view it is essential
that Linux remain free, both in terms of freedom and money. I understand
that funding comes from enterprises who require extended support. The
system should remain free and secure for everyone else.

This is the latest in a long list of attacks on that freedom in the form
of adverts for commercial extended support that are not obvious how to
disable. IMHO they have an aura of FUD for the reader that they might
not be secure without opting in. It's even "generously" free for
individual use, which further increases the ambiguity, because it
implies that perhaps individual users do need it after all.

Is Ubuntu secure without paying? If so, then please let's make that
clear, and provide an easy way for those who don't need extend support
to opt out. If not, then let's find another distro that is.

List of similar instances off the top of my head:
- On login important information about updates is mixed up with ESM advert
- Adverts about ESM in APT.
- Commercial package ubuntu-advantage-tools locked into OS via ubuntu-minimal
- This advert for Ubuntu Pro in software updates, much worse that the others because it requires user interaction.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2047778

Title:
  Software Updater unable to cancel Ubuntu Pro upgrade

Status in update-manager package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
   Every time I invoke Software Updater I get a list of Ubuntu Pro security updates, and a message at the bottom that for those updates I need to enable Ubuntu Pro, with only one other button to choose, "Remind Me Later".  I searched for Ubuntu Pro to find out what it is, and came to the conclusion that I do not want it;  but there seems to nowhere be any means to permanently reject its installation.  Every time I reboot the computer I get the same files offered again, and the only options again are to enable Pro or be reminded later, neither of which options reflects my will and desire.  Is this an option, as it seems to be dressed up to be?, or is it a MANDATORY upgrade?  My experience as a user is one of confusion.
    (I can still upgrade my packages through Muon Package Manager, though;  but Software Updater appears to have been rendered permanently useless by this persistent nag.)
    Perhaps this is very poor and misguided marketing trick;  rather than a software bug.
    What IS a bug, however, is the inability for a user to block a package or upgrade through the Software Updater interface.  This permanent nag with Ubuntu Pro points to a deficiency in Software Updater.  There ought to be a way to say NO to an upgrade in a way that sticks.

  Info:
  My computer is an old Lenovo T440 laptop.
  ~$ lsb_release -a
  No LSB modules are available.
  Distributor ID: Ubuntu
  Description:    Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS
  Release:        22.04
  Codename:       jammy
  Using Lubuntu desktop.

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