Popularity Contest

[Shawn Christopher]

I agree with a few statements. Had Microsoft done this (and who says
they don't) then people would be throwing a fit. However I look at it in
this respect only because I have developed software. Debian has to have
a clearing house. I mean if there is a package that NO ONE uses that
sits on the server how are they to know it. Just assume and take it off?
What if the reporting software on the server isn't reporting it? Then
people would be upset. I don't remember ever seeing a "permission slip"
saying yeah report back to Debian however I am in the same boat as you.
I really could care less as long as it's not attaching my passwd file
with it :-D to that extent I think if it doesn't affect any other
packages and you want to remove it you can feel free to. Remember as
long as you give someone else control over what your system will have
and not have on it....then you leave yourself open to this happening.

Shawn

Ed Fletcher wrote:

> I was looking for something else in Synaptic and came across
> popularity-contest.  It was installed, so I got curious and had a look
> at it.  It turns out that it's run by cron.weekly and lists all the
> packages on your system, sorts them by how recently they've been
> accessed and emails the results to survey at popcon.debian.org
>
> Now I'm not against this in principle, but I'm not fond of information
> leaving my computer when I don't know anything about it.  I really think
> that participation in this program, worthy as it may be, should be on an
> opt-in basis.  This could easily be done during the install process so
> the user/sysadmin has the opportunity to make an informed choice.
>
> Now maybe I was offered the choice back when I did the install many
> months ago.  If so then it's my fault for accepting and then forgetting.
> ~ If not, then I think that this should be changed.
>
> If this was being done by Microsoft, I doubt many people would be
> comfortable with it.
>
> Ed
> --
> Ed Fletcher
> ed at fletcher.ca
>
> What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless,
> whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism
> or the holy name of liberty or democracy?  -  Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
>
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