The Manjaro Linux team are asking for testers for their new data collection tool called "Manjaro Data Donor", which they plan to have as opt-out and not opt-in.
As expected, they are catching some comments from users not particularly happy about their plan to have it hooked up as something you have to opt out of due to privacy concerns. Telemetry is often a bad word to a lot of people, but the reality is that when done correctly it can be truly essential for projects to know where to focus.
Manjaro developer Roman Gilg said in the announcement that currently they use Matomo, which is pinged via the Network Manager but it's unreliable for various reasons. So they created Manjaro Data Donor (MDD) which gives more information and should be more reliable overall, and they actually have full control over it.
Currently they just want Manjaro users to test it and give feedback, but eventually it will be hooked up as a systemd service:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.In the next few days we’ll do some more testing and if results are positive, I plan on installing it on all Manjaro systems and adding a systemd service to submit the data automatically.
As a reminder: Right now you have to install MDD manually and there is no systemd service yet.
With this systemd service later in place, sending the hardware data with MDD will be opt-out because I believe, if you do opt-in, the data you gather will be so heavily skewed you can just leave it be.
Let me know what you think. I know telemetry is a contentious subject, but we need at least some data about how Manjaro is being used by so many people around the world in order to show that the project has a future and also to plan for that future.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
Quoting: CZiNTrPTIn my country real organ donorship is opt-out and that's right approach as well
Yeap. Here in the UK organ donation was swapped to opt-out for the same good reason Manjaro should use opt-out for their telemetry. Lots of people who aren't bothered either way, will never opt-in, but those who care will always opt-out
Last edited by spymastermatt on 5 November 2024 at 5:56 pm UTC
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BlackBloodRum about 7 hours ago
Quoting: Mountain ManWith all this doom and gloom talk about the end of Manjaro, I have to ask, what's the best alternative?Gentoo.
(Of course every Linux distro seems to be surrounded by pronouncements of its impending demise, but it rarely comes to pass.)
I know that feels like a meme, but it's really not. This thing is rock solid stable like a mountain, and man switching to it was the best choice I ever made. I don't even get all those little "odd bugs" you normally get on other distros.
You compile all the packages yourself which means you can patch out forced telemetry yourself or disable it at compile time (I do this for KDE). Binary packages are available now, but you lose some customizability.
Anything done in a way you don't like can basically be changed, no questions asked.
Quoting: spymastermattSay what now? I'm from the UK and was last told it was opt-out. I wasn't informed it changed to opt-in. When did this change, and how do I opt out? (My organs are buggered from drinking too much to be useful. Heck, my organs probably couldn't keep a human alive for more than a day.)Quoting: CZiNTrPTIn my country real organ donorship is opt-out and that's right approach as well
Yeap. Here in the UK organ donation was swapped to opt-in for the same good reason Manjaro should use opt-in for their telemetry. Lots of people who aren't bothered either way, will never opt-in, but those who care will always opt-out
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Quoting: spymastermattI feel like you swapped one or two "out" and "in" somewhere in there.Quoting: CZiNTrPTIn my country real organ donorship is opt-out and that's right approach as well
Yeap. Here in the UK organ donation was swapped to opt-in for the same good reason Manjaro should use opt-in for their telemetry. Lots of people who aren't bothered either way, will never opt-in, but those who care will always opt-out
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: spymastermattI feel like you swapped one or two "out" and "in" somewhere in there.Quoting: CZiNTrPTIn my country real organ donorship is opt-out and that's right approach as well
Yeap. Here in the UK organ donation was swapped to opt-in for the same good reason Manjaro should use opt-in for their telemetry. Lots of people who aren't bothered either way, will never opt-in, but those who care will always opt-out
Yeap sorry, corrected
1 Likes, Who?
how about asking for data on their own forum?
i do not want this to be installed on my PC at all
Last edited by mylka on 5 November 2024 at 10:21 pm UTC
i do not want this to be installed on my PC at all
Last edited by mylka on 5 November 2024 at 10:21 pm UTC
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Quoting: BlackBloodRumQuoting: Mountain ManWith all this doom and gloom talk about the end of Manjaro, I have to ask, what's the best alternative?Gentoo.
(Of course every Linux distro seems to be surrounded by pronouncements of its impending demise, but it rarely comes to pass.)
I know that feels like a meme, but it's really not. This thing is rock solid stable like a mountain, and man switching to it was the best choice I ever made. I don't even get all those little "odd bugs" you normally get on other distros.
You compile all the packages yourself which means you can patch out forced telemetry yourself or disable it at compile time (I do this for KDE). Binary packages are available now, but you lose some customizability.
Anything done in a way you don't like can basically be changed, no questions asked.
Quoting: spymastermattSay what now? I'm from the UK and was last told it was opt-out. I wasn't informed it changed to opt-in. When did this change, and how do I opt out? (My organs are buggered from drinking too much to be useful. Heck, my organs probably couldn't keep a human alive for more than a day.)Quoting: CZiNTrPTIn my country real organ donorship is opt-out and that's right approach as well
Yeap. Here in the UK organ donation was swapped to opt-in for the same good reason Manjaro should use opt-in for their telemetry. Lots of people who aren't bothered either way, will never opt-in, but those who care will always opt-out
May 2020.
You opt-out here.
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Ohh no really.
I have just re installed Manjaro yesterday thanks to PDX and CO with the CS2 mods virus and now this.
I welcome any recommendations for a similar alternative distro.
Pure Arch might just be beyond my reach but I am willing to give a go if its not too much hassle to install.
I have a message for the Manjaro team if anyone sees it here. I left windows for a reason and for me opt out clauses crosses the line so im done with Manjaro it looks like. Shame as it was getting pretty darn good.
I have just re installed Manjaro yesterday thanks to PDX and CO with the CS2 mods virus and now this.
I welcome any recommendations for a similar alternative distro.
Pure Arch might just be beyond my reach but I am willing to give a go if its not too much hassle to install.
I have a message for the Manjaro team if anyone sees it here. I left windows for a reason and for me opt out clauses crosses the line so im done with Manjaro it looks like. Shame as it was getting pretty darn good.
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Mountain Man about 3 hours ago
Quoting: BlackBloodRumI ran Gentoo many years ago and found it to be rather labor intensive and too easy to break even with a routine update. I imagine things have changed in the past 15 years, but I also have no compelling reason to abandon Manjaro at the moment since it has always just worked for me. I suppose that's boring to people who like to constantly tweak and tinker, but these days, I really don't mind boring!Quoting: Mountain ManWith all this doom and gloom talk about the end of Manjaro, I have to ask, what's the best alternative?Gentoo.
(Of course every Linux distro seems to be surrounded by pronouncements of its impending demise, but it rarely comes to pass.)
I know that feels like a meme, but it's really not. This thing is rock solid stable like a mountain, and man switching to it was the best choice I ever made. I don't even get all those little "odd bugs" you normally get on other distros.
You compile all the packages yourself which means you can patch out forced telemetry yourself or disable it at compile time (I do this for KDE). Binary packages are available now, but you lose some customizability.
Anything done in a way you don't like can basically be changed, no questions asked.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Mountain ManSame, but I suppose I've ended up drifting even further to the other extreme.Quoting: BlackBloodRumI ran Gentoo many years ago and found it to be rather labor intensive and too easy to break even with a routine update. I imagine things have changed in the past 15 years, but I also have no compelling reason to abandon Manjaro at the moment since it has always just worked for me. I suppose that's boring to people who like to constantly tweak and tinker, but these days, I really don't mind boring!Quoting: Mountain ManWith all this doom and gloom talk about the end of Manjaro, I have to ask, what's the best alternative?Gentoo.
(Of course every Linux distro seems to be surrounded by pronouncements of its impending demise, but it rarely comes to pass.)
I know that feels like a meme, but it's really not. This thing is rock solid stable like a mountain, and man switching to it was the best choice I ever made. I don't even get all those little "odd bugs" you normally get on other distros.
You compile all the packages yourself which means you can patch out forced telemetry yourself or disable it at compile time (I do this for KDE). Binary packages are available now, but you lose some customizability.
Anything done in a way you don't like can basically be changed, no questions asked.
Gentoo was great fun for a couple of years though, back when a full stage 1 install took a whole weekend on my Athlon Thunderbird 750, with a stack of printed A4 sheets for an installation manual. It was a good learning experience for a relative Linux newbie such as myself in the very early 2000s. Still miss portage and ebuilds. But not quite enough to go back.
To be fair, I've read that Gentoo provides binary packages these days and stage 1 and 2 installs haven't been a thing for a good 15 years. The distro must have changed quite a bit since those halcyon days of yore.
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