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> The Unity lens is fundamentally fucked up. Even if you are ok with it being opt-out, I think you would have to acknowledge that it isn't a very good business

by nikcub 13y ago

> The Unity lens is fundamentally fucked up. Even if you are ok with it being opt-out, I think you would have to acknowledge that it isn't a very good business model. Linux users tend to be very conscious of their privacy rights. Further even if you think it is ok to be opt-out, and think it is a legitimate way to monetize Linux users, you would acknowledge that Canonical have not handled any part of this story arch very well. This has done more than enough damage, I think they should abandon it and find another way to fund their development. They could win back a lot of support and sympathy with a mea culpa moment acknowledging at least one or more of: it wasn't a good idea, it wasn't implemented well, and we didn't handle the criticism properly.

jfoster 13y ago
I think the reason Canonical is running into so many problems here is that they are not really targeting your conventional Linux user. They're well and truly after the mainstream, but there are still these old-school Linux users clinging on without realizing that Ubuntu isn't really meant for them.
- oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
  The danger with that approach is that Linux is not a mainstream product. It's come on leaps and bounds, and Ubuntu has been hugely responsible for the broadening of desktop linux's appeal, but it's still not mainstream. Windows is mainstream. OSX, some people have heard of, even fewer have tried. Linux is still very much the domain of us geeks, a group that a) is very willing to switch based on principle b) is very capable of switching c) understands how our privacy is being violated. Canonical COULD get desktop Linux into the mainstream, and stand a better chance than anyone else of doing so, but this is a massive shot in the foot. I give Ubuntu about 6 months of sticking with this policy before they realise they're slowly, irretrievably losing most of their customers.
  - jfoster 13y ago
    They've been at it for a lot longer than 6 months. The shopping lens was introduced a year ago. There was also the Unity controversy before that. Debian has never particularly liked them for various reasons. I'd argue that if they are not going for the mainstream consumers (or enterprise), they might as well just close the company. For the reasons you mentioned, Linux users are quite high-maintenance and difficult to please. Evidence of this is how much Linux users tend to flame each other. I don't think Canonical really wants those extremely principled, very privacy-sensitive Linux geeks as customers. They would be behaving very differently to the criticism if they did.
- mdeslaur 13y ago
  Exactly. To remain competitive, Ubuntu needs a global search feature much like iOS, Android, Windows, and OS X have. It's what non-technical users are expecting of a modern operating system. Sending the search result to a central server is required to implement this properly by adding voice recognition for mobile devices, and using data correlation and analysis on the server side to return appropriate and relevant results. With users storing more and more data in the cloud, having a global search box that searches for a particular picture not only locally, but also in my Facebook account, my Ubuntu One, my Flickr, my Dropbox, and my Google+ just makes sense.

by nikcub 13y ago

jfoster 13y ago

I think the reason Canonical is running into so many problems here is that they are not really targeting your conventional Linux user. They're well and truly after the mainstream, but there are still these old-school Linux users clinging on without realizing that Ubuntu isn't really meant for them.

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
The danger with that approach is that Linux is not a mainstream product. It's come on leaps and bounds, and Ubuntu has been hugely responsible for the broadening of desktop linux's appeal, but it's still not mainstream. Windows is mainstream. OSX, some people have heard of, even fewer have tried. Linux is still very much the domain of us geeks, a group that a) is very willing to switch based on principle b) is very capable of switching c) understands how our privacy is being violated. Canonical COULD get desktop Linux into the mainstream, and stand a better chance than anyone else of doing so, but this is a massive shot in the foot. I give Ubuntu about 6 months of sticking with this policy before they realise they're slowly, irretrievably losing most of their customers.
- jfoster 13y ago
  They've been at it for a lot longer than 6 months. The shopping lens was introduced a year ago. There was also the Unity controversy before that. Debian has never particularly liked them for various reasons. I'd argue that if they are not going for the mainstream consumers (or enterprise), they might as well just close the company. For the reasons you mentioned, Linux users are quite high-maintenance and difficult to please. Evidence of this is how much Linux users tend to flame each other. I don't think Canonical really wants those extremely principled, very privacy-sensitive Linux geeks as customers. They would be behaving very differently to the criticism if they did.
mdeslaur 13y ago
Exactly. To remain competitive, Ubuntu needs a global search feature much like iOS, Android, Windows, and OS X have. It's what non-technical users are expecting of a modern operating system. Sending the search result to a central server is required to implement this properly by adding voice recognition for mobile devices, and using data correlation and analysis on the server side to return appropriate and relevant results. With users storing more and more data in the cloud, having a global search box that searches for a particular picture not only locally, but also in my Facebook account, my Ubuntu One, my Flickr, my Dropbox, and my Google+ just makes sense.