I trust the Chinese gov't more than the American one which has made it clear it hates me.
Deepin was found to be sending encrypted data to some analytics company without user knowledge or consent. This is similar to how Ubuntu shared data with Amazon, only many times worse since Canonical did mentioned this and the data was not encrypted, so you could see what was being sent.
Bad faith, breach of user trust and complete disregard of privacy are bad things regardless of the country of origin.
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I rather like China and do not feel threatened by them (unlike the US gov't and corps). They have fully transitioned from Communism to Nationalism, which I like. I do wish they would get rid of their Communist flag and symbols tho. I guess they keep them as good PR for the international leftist media.
3:5, as all flags should be.
Fun facts about China:
*They have virtually no social services. They save 20% of their incomes for retirement and loans to relatives.
*The gov't might arrange a menial job for you if you are starving.
*Deformed babies don't live long or are never born.
*They pay for traditional Chinese medicine out of pocket, which is basically a placebo and won't hurt you. Nevertheless, they live as long as we do. They do have Western style doctors but they are especially deadly.
@TabNumlock , while this forum prefers a certain amount of freedom in expression and the healthy exchange of ideas... It may be wise to refrain from going too far into the weeds about personal politics and preferred governments.
Discussing what governments are doing and how it impacts Linux is a necessary evil.
This is not a moderator warning or anything - just a friendly bit of advise.
EDIT:
@TabNumlock , after I posted the above, you edited further political leanings into your post.
Due to this...
This is now an official Warning.
Please refrain from pressing specific Personal Politics on the forum. While we may need to address how governments affect Linux and Distros, this can be done in a way that is neutral and unbiased.
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Deepin claims they arenât doing anything like that anymore. Hopefully they are telling the truth.
They have done a great job throughout the entire history of the project of making interesting Desktop Environments though. I liked the Mac-ish one they had before the current one as well.
I might just leave.
Looking at the details:
It turned out that the Deepin store backend is actually a website â which, by the way, is true for many other Linux apps as well.
The CNZZ tracker was embedded in the storeâs backend to collect anonymous website usage information like âbrowser user agent, resolution, etc.â Now the fact that Deepin opted to use an âetc.â instead of elaborating on all the metrics that were being collected is a cause for concern for many. Furthermore, the data it was sending was encrypted, making it impossible to know the kind of stuff they are collecting.
According to them, the service is âsimilar to Google Analytics,â implying that the type of data collected is similar to whatâs collected by other websites using Google Analytics.
They have also explicitly cited that âno private informationâ is collected by Deepin.
As far as the reason for collecting user data, Deepin stated that by using CNZZ, they hoped to âimprove website experienceâ and âdetect website problems.â
After publishing the statement, Deepin removed the CNZZ tracker from the Deepin store. QuidsUp also made a follow-up video after the statement and concluded that Deepin has genuinely removed CNZZ tracking.
It is up to the user to research and verify what they can. This is a very interesting thing to look at, as it could go either way.
Deepin did intentionally include CNZZ and did not disclose this. But they state that they did so in regards to their website, not necessarily to their OS. Was it a case of them not thinking it all the way through?
Or knowing exactly what they were doing?
No matter how you look at it, there's a dangerous precedent. It's perfectly natural to be wary of wrong doings in the past even when amends have been made. And considering the amount of alternatives freely available it's just not worth the headache of having to go and figure out whether they are being honest or not.
With Ubuntu there's a similar scenario but given is probably one of the largest distributions there are plenty of eyes on top of them that I would trust them more despite of what happened in the past. Still, Ubuntu is definitely not one distribution I would switch to in any case.
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Ubuntu is a repeat offender, actually.
And they also promised not to do it again, then did it again.
Not surprising... it's always this back and forth to push people's limits, see how far can they get and get away with.
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There used to be another online source for trial running Distros: DistroTest. The website shut down and I do not know why or what happened.
DistroSea was created to fill that gap. I do not know much about it, either.
You might be able to report the issue:
Canonical is a business and they have terms and conditions that anyone can read.
Canonicalâs business success is directly related to the success of many distros.
While I can understand this point of view. Ubuntu has pressures that most distros do not.
Canonical based Ubuntu on Debian. Debian, believe it or not, is bigger and more embroiled than Ubuntu. Yet, Debian has never had such scandals as Canonical.
The most scandalous thing Debian ever did was switch to SystemD. They were open about it all along. They made no promises to break.
To say that Canonical is a business in the manner you did sounds a lot like an excuse for why Canonical behaves as it does.
But it is not a valid excuse.
Any persons success is dependent on actions they may choose. If that person may choose to perform dishonestly hoping to bring themselves success and gets called out on it, it is no different than a company doing it.
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It honestly is a bit of an excuse.
But my point is Canoncal has a bottom line to worry about and the implications of them not being sustainably profitable is far reaching.
If most distros go under it only effects that distro. If Ubuntu went under it effects Linux as a whole.
I could give many historical examples of people that did good in the world, but also did bad that they had to be held accountable for. Some, may be quite shocking as examples.
I agree with you that there is a problem in Linux. But... that problem needs a solution. I do not think that resorting to dishonesty, sneaking advertising, stealing data, etc. counts as a viable solution.
Linux needs more financial support. While Free Cost systems has appeal... It is not very good for bringing in Expert Development.
Let's look at Zorin OS. Zorin gives the OS for free.
Zorin also offers a pay for Pro Version.
Users choose Pro for the sake of supporting development as well as it being in their own Self-Interest to secure a Stable Future for the OS they prefer.
If Canonical Collapsed, Zorin OS could and would keep on kickin'.
By having the Pro version - that is... you have to pay for, purchase, buy... this version, Zorin Secured Financial Support. If ZorinGroup relied on donations only, then they may have a less secure future.
I firmly believe that Linux Distros should actually be pay-for. I know this is not a popular opinion... But the reality is that Nothing Is Ever Free (cost). Nothing. Someone is going to pay, somehow, someway.
I would rather pay a fair and responsible amount out of my pocket, than to trust that to someone else's self-interest.
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I'll probably go with Debian stable XFCE,both of which I feel are very easy to customize.I don't much care about getting the latest and greatest,or rather I need my workstation to be old and and familiar, otherwise I'll just waste time playing aroun with the new features d:^)
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@zenzen Reply applies to you as well on how I feel about these matters.
Sorry for the slow response I was bathing my dogs lol.
The thing about Canonical is I KNOW their agenda. I know they have many developers and a proper hierarchy to ensure the code is suitable and does not contain any malware or anything else unexpected.
It will be very unlikely that something like Linux Mint's code to be audited as well as Ubuntu's. (Nothing against the Mint team just using them as an example. As you get to smaller distros this problem compounds even more).
The price for Ubuntu's professionalism is they need sources of revenue that a typical distro does not.
I know data collection is something Linux users hate (I do not mind reasonable data collection like Zorin and Ubuntu does).
But the fact of the matter is I know exactly what Canonical is out to do and that is comforting to me versus a project that is ruled by emotion instead of facts.
Zorin's agenda is really pretty similar to Ubuntu's if you get down to it just on a smaller scale. I also do not mind paying, I intend to pay for Zorin 17 Pro when it is released to support this awesome project.
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Debian 12 is right around the corner as well. I am probably going to mess around with it myself.
Zorin does not do "data collection."
There is a Zorin Census, which only takes anonymous note of how many users are using Zorin OS (Without reporting who they are or any other information whatsoever.)
Users can opt in or out of the census.
Zorin OS does not gather, analyze, sell, move or record ANY User Data.
The ZorinForum does save user data for your profile /account - But I do not know much about it.
Canonicals revenue is dismal, and sadly, they also turn to Red Hat prospects due to this.
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While as I mentioned it is no big deal to me there was still at least some controversy about it. Initially you could not opt out of it correct?
My point is (correct me if I am wrong) users did not initially know about it. Who knows what is going on in some distros that we do not know the agenda of.
As I mentioned I trust Canonical to be reasonable but not perfect. (I trust Zorin as well)