this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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Linux
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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.
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@neinhorn
@linux
No telemetry is definitely a priority. Does Mint track?
To be fair, Fedora has opt-in telemetry. It's 100% anonymized, though, and helps with development. I always say yes when I'm running a beta (like now).
That having been said, you should always check the privacy policies of any given distro. They tend to all be pretty up front about it (kinda hard to lie about it when anyone can check your source code...).
AFAIK, though, neither Mint nor Elementary collect telemetry by default, although they might have opt-in like Fedora. Both are based on Ubuntu LTS, but they also both scrape out so much stuff that they're devoid of most of the Canonical junk.
No Linux distro "tracks" like Windows, Android, iOS or macOS do. This is nonsense. Fedora may introduce opt-something telemitry that will just help make the Distro better, and via one single setting you can always enable or disable it.
I have full data sharing on KDE and also report lots of bugs.
Pro-tip: set your username as "user" do avoid doxxing yourself uploading debug logs
Mint doesn’t by default, but it is based on Canonical’s Ubuntu which is not the most privacy friendly distro. Depending on how you install your software, some telemetry might go to Canonical.