I'm fairly certain that Microsoft ASKS if you want to be part of their
"Customer Experience Program" that reports back statistics in the
exact same matter I'm proposing, as well as crash incidents. If there
were laws against it they'd stop doing it, particularly in the EU. I
know that Windows 7 still does this and Mac OS X and iTunes does this.
I'm not of the opinion that everything Microsoft does is bad. In fact
this is an area that I think were they excel.
On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 1:14 PM,
Administrator
If it doesnt exist already, I think that at least in the next version of OpenSUSE, you should have some sort of part of the install procedure that reports the desktop being used to a centralized database, and finds out how long the installation has been "alive". This at least should happen every time the system does a zypper update. That would allow you to have a more accurate census of how many OpenSUSE boxes exist in the wild and what UI is being utilized.
Hi Jason,
There are data protection act and brand issues with collecting information like this. This is the kind of issue which contributed to Microsoft's bad name - collecting information regularly about people and the software they use creates paranoia. Even after Microsoft stopped the belief persists that Microsoft is spying on all users of MS software. Do we want to go there?
David
p.s. and a request to all on the group - please let's not get into the Microsoft trope - the KDE / gnome confrontation is enough of a blind alley.
-- Jason Perlow jperlow@gmail.com (201)735-5838 Twitter: http://twitter.com/jperlow Technology Columnist, ZDNet Tech Broiler (http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow) Blogger/Podcaster, Off The Broiler (http://www.offthebroiler.com) LinkedIn Public Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonperlow -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org