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One implication of this that some people don't realize is that a brand new Ubuntu instance -- whether a physical host, a virtual machine, an EC2 instance, whate

One implication of this that some people don't realize is that a brand new Ubuntu instance -- whether a physical host, a virtual machine, an EC2 instance, whatever -- immediately calls home to Canonical as soon as it spins up for the first time. The functionality is included in the "base-files" package, which has a priority of "required" and is marked as an "essential" package. Thus, if you have an Ubuntu instance, it's nearly 100% guaranteed this is installed and enabled by default. (If memory serves, this was added in 17.04 or thereabouts.)

panpanna 7y ago
I don't think this is "calling home". Ubuntu has been pretty open with their "analytics", which are are really minimal (OS version + screen size + disk size + ...). And yes, they ask for consent. I think this motd is there to (1) advertise more complex canonical products and (2) be used for security announcements. Also, I don't think you ever see motd on a desktop install.
- jlgaddis 7y ago
  > Also, I don't think you ever see motd on a desktop install. Whether you see it or not, it's still there and it's still running every ~12 hours.
  - panpanna 7y ago
    Ah, I did not know that. I used to have a privacy.sh script for fresh Ubuntu installs back on the Amazon shenanigans days. That file has been empty for a while but I guess I need to update it again.
- wrkronmiller 7y ago
  The user agent string contains specifics including cpu uptime I believe.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
hoyd 7y ago
Installing offline, just to remove the phone-home-script and then go online..
- Skunkleton 7y ago
  This really shouldn't be required. If you are going to build-in anti-features, at least make sure that there aren't equivalent alternatives to your product. Ubuntu lost me when they started bundling all of the Amazon crap.
- m463 7y ago
  > remove the phone-home-script This implies there is one script. However, ubuntu is full of crap. the privacy panel, snapd, amazon, lots more. The fixubuntu.com site has disappeared. I switched to arch linux. one amazing difference - launch gnome on arch and it comes up in a second. On ubuntu there is so much bloat.
  - heavenlyblue 7y ago
    What’s the alternative to snap in arch?
    - chmod775 7y ago
      pacman and the AUR or Appimage? Throw in firejail if you want sandboxing. I have yet to find a piece of software that was only available as a snap package. Also snapd is available from the AUR.
      - johnisgood 7y ago
        Unfortunately I did find such a piece of software. Is there a way to get the direct download link to a snap? Perhaps a manual way of downloading and installing a snap, that would suffice. I ran into issues (version incompatibility which in itself is not a problem, snap made it a problem) and they made me give up on installing a product that was available ONLY as a snap. They (some company) used to release their crapware as .deb and .rpm before which was extremely easy to extract and use myself (I would just download the .deb file, then do: ar x crapware.deb && tar xvf data.tar.xz), but now it is snap-only. I could not find any direct links on Snapcraft. I do not like this direction, to be honest.
vetrom 7y ago
Rather older. This sort of thing started rolling out when Landscape came out, c.a. 12 years ago. Does Red Hat have something similar in RHEL?
- samtrack2019 7y ago
  RHEL doesnt need to since to get packages access you need to register your system with your rhn account... Fedora or CentOS does not
- slim 7y ago
  redhat actually invented this crap in the linux world. I abandoned redhat in 99 because it overwrote my config files. now every distro does it
- jlgaddis 7y ago
  The "dynamic MOTD" was introduced c. 2009, IIRC, but that was all locally-generated stuff. I'm pretty sure the "phone home" crap started shipping with Ubuntu 17.04.
vunie 7y ago
This is what drove me to use Debian. I used to spend quite a but of time hunting down telemetry and other canonical-serving crap, but I eventually got tired of it. With this crap and others (e.g. aggressive snapping), Canonical is eroding trust in its most important market. Inertia will only take them so far.
- pagnol 7y ago
  Going back to Debian from Ubuntu, are there any things you miss?
  - Enginerrrd 7y ago
    I did this, and it actually was a major turning point in my linux career. If you find anything lacking, just go to arch. God I love arch.
    - libeclipse 7y ago
      Manjaro is a great frontend for Arch.

panpanna 7y ago

I don't think this is "calling home". Ubuntu has been pretty open with their "analytics", which are are really minimal (OS version + screen size + disk size + ...). And yes, they ask for consent. I think this motd is there to (1) advertise more complex canonical products and (2) be used for security announcements. Also, I don't think you ever see motd on a desktop install.

jlgaddis 7y ago
> Also, I don't think you ever see motd on a desktop install. Whether you see it or not, it's still there and it's still running every ~12 hours.
- panpanna 7y ago
  Ah, I did not know that. I used to have a privacy.sh script for fresh Ubuntu installs back on the Amazon shenanigans days. That file has been empty for a while but I guess I need to update it again.
wrkronmiller 7y ago
The user agent string contains specifics including cpu uptime I believe.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

hoyd 7y ago

Installing offline, just to remove the phone-home-script and then go online..

Skunkleton 7y ago
This really shouldn't be required. If you are going to build-in anti-features, at least make sure that there aren't equivalent alternatives to your product. Ubuntu lost me when they started bundling all of the Amazon crap.
m463 7y ago
> remove the phone-home-script This implies there is one script. However, ubuntu is full of crap. the privacy panel, snapd, amazon, lots more. The fixubuntu.com site has disappeared. I switched to arch linux. one amazing difference - launch gnome on arch and it comes up in a second. On ubuntu there is so much bloat.
- heavenlyblue 7y ago
  What’s the alternative to snap in arch?
  - chmod775 7y ago
    pacman and the AUR or Appimage? Throw in firejail if you want sandboxing. I have yet to find a piece of software that was only available as a snap package. Also snapd is available from the AUR.
    - johnisgood 7y ago
      Unfortunately I did find such a piece of software. Is there a way to get the direct download link to a snap? Perhaps a manual way of downloading and installing a snap, that would suffice. I ran into issues (version incompatibility which in itself is not a problem, snap made it a problem) and they made me give up on installing a product that was available ONLY as a snap. They (some company) used to release their crapware as .deb and .rpm before which was extremely easy to extract and use myself (I would just download the .deb file, then do: ar x crapware.deb && tar xvf data.tar.xz), but now it is snap-only. I could not find any direct links on Snapcraft. I do not like this direction, to be honest.

vetrom 7y ago

Rather older. This sort of thing started rolling out when Landscape came out, c.a. 12 years ago. Does Red Hat have something similar in RHEL?

samtrack2019 7y ago
RHEL doesnt need to since to get packages access you need to register your system with your rhn account... Fedora or CentOS does not
slim 7y ago
redhat actually invented this crap in the linux world. I abandoned redhat in 99 because it overwrote my config files. now every distro does it
jlgaddis 7y ago
The "dynamic MOTD" was introduced c. 2009, IIRC, but that was all locally-generated stuff. I'm pretty sure the "phone home" crap started shipping with Ubuntu 17.04.

vunie 7y ago

This is what drove me to use Debian. I used to spend quite a but of time hunting down telemetry and other canonical-serving crap, but I eventually got tired of it. With this crap and others (e.g. aggressive snapping), Canonical is eroding trust in its most important market. Inertia will only take them so far.

pagnol 7y ago
Going back to Debian from Ubuntu, are there any things you miss?
- Enginerrrd 7y ago
  I did this, and it actually was a major turning point in my linux career. If you find anything lacking, just go to arch. God I love arch.
  - libeclipse 7y ago
    Manjaro is a great frontend for Arch.