this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
134 points (97.2% liked)

Linux

48182 readers
2111 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The developers of the Manjaro Linux distribution, built on the basis of Arch Linux and aimed at beginners, announced the beginning of testing a new service MDD (Manjaro Data Donor), designed to collect statistics about the system and send it to the external server of the project. The author of the MDD intended to enable telemetry by default (opt-out), but the decision has not yet been approved and, judging by the objections of some developers and users, it is likely that telemetry will be offered as an option requiring prior consent of the user (a request to enable telemetry is proposed to be added to the greeting interface after the first download).

The report includes data such as host name, kernel version, desktop component versions, detailed information about hardware and drivers involved, screen size and resolution information, network device MAC addresses, disk serial numbers, disk partition data, information about the number of running processes and installed packages, versions of basic packages such as systemd, gcc, bash and PipeWire.

The sent data is stored on the project server in the ClickHouse database and visualized using the Grafana platform. The IP addresses of users are not stored, and the hash from the /etc/machine-id file is used as the system identifier.

Аccording to the code https://github.com/manjaro/mdd/blob/master/mdd.py#L40 sends everything.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml 73 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

enable telemetry by default ... MAC addresses, disk serial numbers

Another reason to not use Manjaro. Just use Endeavour instead.

Edit: I'm not against telemetry pre se. I have the KDE feedback enabled for example but that was opt in and sends no unique data.

[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's all about trust. Manjaro has given me reasons to distrust them.

[–] exu@feditown.com 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

When?

Edit: I misread, though it said "trust" instead of "distrust"

[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

They've let TLS certs expire on multiple occasions. They've made the decision to enable the AUR in the default installation, which can cause conflicts with out-of-date dependencies because of the delayed release schedule compared to Arch. They've shipped software on their stable branch that included unmerged upstream code. One of their developers temporarily broke Asahi Linux.

I don't hate the project, but I can't trust the developers and management.

[–] MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 week ago

They’ve let TLS certs expire on multiple occasions.

And they told their community to set their clocks back. As a workaround, it will work but all your created and modified data will have the wrong timestamps.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

One of their developers temporarily broke Asahi Linux.

Wait, how??

[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

He's also a contributor to Asahi Linux. One of his MRs changed the build options that somehow caused it to (IIRC) use mainline Mesa instead of the branch that is specifically modified to work on ARM.

(edit) Aussie linux man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDRiBbzzREw

It's not only his fault, but mostly.

[–] nichtburningturtle@feddit.org 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

That time they ddosed the AUR is an example. Incompetence is reason enough for me.

EDIT: https://manjarno.pages.dev/

[–] seaQueue@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

They've done it more than once now

wait, is that name "manjarno" like when brad pitt says bonjorno in inglorious basterds??

[–] sovietknuckles@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Another reason to not use Manjaro. Just use Endeavour instead.

Endeavour could be useful if it's your first time running an Arch-based distro and you're looking for software/configuration suggestions. Otherwise, Arch Linux is fine by itself and it doesn't have telemetry

[–] halm@leminal.space 10 points 1 week ago

I don't think anybody would say otherwise. Both Manjaro and Endeavour mean to make Arch more appealing to users who aren't comfortable with command line configuration.

Endeavour has arguably done better than Manjaro, but yeah. They're just some configs on top of a system that does very well on its own.

[–] imogen_underscore@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

endeavor keeps pushing updates with cringe AI desktop backgrounds and its making me want to install vanilla arch

[–] witx@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 week ago

Their whole aesthetics is super cringe