Re: Modifying GNOME-About to count users

[John Williams <jwilliams business otago ac nz>]

On Tue, 2005-07-05 at 11:21 -0400, Robert Love wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-07-05 at 14:37 +1200, John Williams wrote:
> 
> > Essentially we propose modifying the GNOME About box to include a toggle
> > that indicate the user's permission to activate a program that would
> > periodically contact a central GNOME server.   Information that would be
> > transmitted and recorded has not been decided yet, but the prime
> > requirement is to record the number of current GNOME users (not
> > installations) on a (say) monthly basis.
> 
> I can see the slashdot article now..
> 
Really?  What does it say?

"GNOME gets off its arse and tries to measure market share in the
buildup to 10x10"

or

"GNOME acts like Evil Empire M$ by embedding secret software the spy on
users"

?

It is exactly the latter that we want to avoid, by making this toggle
button off by default (as explained on the wiki page).