Alan Horkan wrote:
On Wed, 9 Aug 2006, Donn wrote:
Would it be ethical to build-in a "call home" poll.
Yes and No.
For me I think it would only be ok to do this if it was a voluntary opt in process.
Currently the phone home ability of software has really bad press as a result of Sony's rootkit and Microsoft's WGA with upgrade or we shut you down customer support proposals. TBH I think open source not needing this kind of thing is a huge plus and makes people feel more in control of their own systems.
Being able to choose to contribute feedback is different from a piece of software which does things on behalf of people other than the person who installed it.
If youre just looking for which os people are running - can this be determined by what they are downloading ?
There is an ubuntu website where people are volutarily posting that they are users. This might be a better approach? http://ubuntucounter.geekosophical.net/
Janet