this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024

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Manjaro distribution is introducing a system for sending telemetry about the system (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The developers of the Manjaro Linux distribution, built on the basis of Arch Linux and aimed at beginners, announced the beginning of testing a new service MDD (Manjaro Data Donor), designed to collect statistics about the system and send it to the external server of the project. The author of the MDD intended to enable telemetry by default (opt-out), but the decision has not yet been approved and, judging by the objections of some developers and users, it is likely that telemetry will be offered as an option requiring prior consent of the user (a request to enable telemetry is proposed to be added to the greeting interface after the first download).

The report includes data such as host name, kernel version, desktop component versions, detailed information about hardware and drivers involved, screen size and resolution information, network device MAC addresses, disk serial numbers, disk partition data, information about the number of running processes and installed packages, versions of basic packages such as systemd, gcc, bash and PipeWire.

The sent data is stored on the project server in the ClickHouse database and visualized using the Grafana platform. The IP addresses of users are not stored, and the hash from the /etc/machine-id file is used as the system identifier.

Аccording to the code https://github.com/manjaro/mdd/blob/master/mdd.py#L40 sends everything.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

enable telemetry by default ... MAC addresses, disk serial numbers

Another reason to not use Manjaro. Just use Endeavour instead.

Edit: I'm not against telemetry pre se. I have the KDE feedback enabled for example but that was opt in and sends no unique data.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's all about trust. Manjaro has given me reasons to distrust them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

When?

Edit: I misread, though it said "trust" instead of "distrust"

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

They've let TLS certs expire on multiple occasions. They've made the decision to enable the AUR in the default installation, which can cause conflicts with out-of-date dependencies because of the delayed release schedule compared to Arch. They've shipped software on their stable branch that included unmerged upstream code. One of their developers temporarily broke Asahi Linux.

I don't hate the project, but I can't trust the developers and management.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

They’ve let TLS certs expire on multiple occasions.

And they told their community to set their clocks back. As a workaround, it will work but all your created and modified data will have the wrong timestamps.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

One of their developers temporarily broke Asahi Linux.

Wait, how??

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

He's also a contributor to Asahi Linux. One of his MRs changed the build options that somehow caused it to (IIRC) use mainline Mesa instead of the branch that is specifically modified to work on ARM.

(edit) Aussie linux man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDRiBbzzREw

It's not only his fault, but mostly.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

That time they ddosed the AUR is an example. Incompetence is reason enough for me.

EDIT: https://manjarno.pages.dev/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

They've done it more than once now

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

wait, is that name "manjarno" like when brad pitt says bonjorno in inglorious basterds??

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Another reason to not use Manjaro. Just use Endeavour instead.

Endeavour could be useful if it's your first time running an Arch-based distro and you're looking for software/configuration suggestions. Otherwise, Arch Linux is fine by itself and it doesn't have telemetry

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

I don't think anybody would say otherwise. Both Manjaro and Endeavour mean to make Arch more appealing to users who aren't comfortable with command line configuration.

Endeavour has arguably done better than Manjaro, but yeah. They're just some configs on top of a system that does very well on its own.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

endeavor keeps pushing updates with cringe AI desktop backgrounds and its making me want to install vanilla arch

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Their whole aesthetics is super cringe