Gnome Project Releases New Telemetry Data Collection Tool
The GNOME developers have announced the release of a new tool to collect anonymous information about your system.
Although telemetry (the collection of data and measurements for the purpose of monitoring) is a rather touchy subject, especially for those who value their privacy), the GNOME foundation has announced it will be adding a telemetry data collection tool to the desktop environment.
Before anyone panics, this data will be 100% anonymous and will be used only to improve the GNOME desktop environment by informing various decisions for the future of the software. Those decisions will help to inform the GNOME Foundation where resources should be best used and how to better help users.
The new tool is a command, gnome-info-collect, and will present all collected data to the user before it’s transmitted. Once you run the command, you will be asked to okay the transmission of the information and, upon successful transmission, you’ll be thanked for helping to improve GNOME.
Types of information that will be collected include such bits as operation system, hardware vendor, flatpack/flathub enabled, installed apps, file sharing (active/inactive), remote desktop (active/inactive), remote login (active/inactive), number of users, default browser, and enabled extensions. There is zero locale information or anything that could be considered sensitive transmitted to the GNOME developers.
You can install the tool with the help of snap, dnf, pacman, or zypper.
For more information, check out the official GitLab page for the project.
Issue 264/2022
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
ExTiX 22.9 Released with Support for Installing Android Apps
The developers of the ExTiX Linux Distribution have released a new version that includes added support to make installing and using Android apps on the desktop a breeze.
-
System76 Skips Pop!_OS 22.10 to Focus on COSMIC Desktop
In a move that is sure to raise some eyebrows, System76 has chosen to concentrate on COSMIC Desktop instead of staying in step with Ubuntu releases.
-
New Look for System76 Thelio
System76 has given their already stellar Thelio desktop computer a redesign by way of the chassis accent panel.
-
Ubuntu Software Store Rumored to Replace Gnome Software
An alternative to GNOME Software has been written, using Flutter, and it’s making enough noise that Canonical is rumored to be considering using it as the default.
-
A New Arch-Based Linux Distribution Has Arrived
Crystal Linux is a new distribution with the goal of bringing the power of Arch Linux to the masses.
-
Fedora 37 Beta Available
The Fedora development team announced the beta for version 37 of the open-source operating system would be released on time on September 13, 2022.
-
Salix 15.0 Offers Updates and a Modernized Look
Salix is a Slackware-based Linux distribution with a new look and a goal of being fast, user-friendly, and highly stable.
-
Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS Release Now Available
The latest point release of the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS distribution is now available and sports kernel 5.15.
-
MX Linux 21.2 Offers Improvements and Bug Fixes
MX Linux 21.2, aka “Wildflower,” is now officially available and is the second refresh of the MX-21 release.
-
Gnome Project Releases New Telemetry Data Collection Tool
The GNOME developers have announced the release of a new tool to collect anonymous information about your system.