Coming Soon: Unity 7
I’m happy to announce that today I filed for a Feature Freeze Exception to get the latest Unity stack into Ubuntu Raring. It’s a lot of new code, but it should all be available in a PPA in the next day or so, and it’ll be available there for about two weeks for people to test and provide feedback before it lands. I won’t go into all of the fixes, performance work and other technical changes, but if you’re interested in what this means for you as a user, keep reading.
Smart Scopes
Discussed during a UDS-style Ubuntu On-Air hangout back in January, Smart Scopes use an intelligent server-side service to decide when they should be used to search. This allows a single process (the Dash Home) to run a query through only a sub-set of your installed scopes. It also allows the scopes processes to be terminated when you close the dash, and only re-start those that are likely to produce a relevant result. As defined by the spec, this service will learn as more people use it, providing more relevant results, so you don’t get unwanted Amazon product results when it should be obvious you’re looking for an application. It also means fewer running processes on your local machine, and therefore less memory usage overall.
100 Scopes
While there won’t be quite 100 in this release, there will be more scopes installed on the client than in previous releases, and even more that we will be able to implement on the server-side. Thanks to the Smart Scope Service, these additional local scopes won’t be using up a lot of your system resources, because they’ll only be run when needed, then immediately terminated. You will be able to install 3rd party scopes, just as before, even ones that the Smart Scope Service doesn’t know about yet. Plus we will be able to add more server-side scopes during the lifetime of a stable release. So while we’re not at 100 yet, there is still a large and growing number of scopes available.
Privacy
Now I know I couldn’t get away with talking about changes to the Dash, especially ones that put more of it’s functionality online, without talking about privacy concerns. With these changes we’ve tried to strike a balance between control and convenience, privacy and productivity. So while we’re providing more fine-grained controls over what scopes to enable, and whether or not to use the Smart Scope service, the default will still be to enable the services that we believe provides the best user experience on Ubuntu. In addition, 13.04 has already added more notice to users that their the Dash will search online sources as well as local.
51 Responses to Coming Soon: Unity 7
Hi Michael, thanks for the good news, if I may ask in regards to the 100 scopes, how will this influence users that have slow internet speeds or have limited internet usage. In the case of scopes that are server-side, since each new query am assuming will use bandwidth, how much will they use and how often. Is it feasible for slow internet users or limited ones?
The linked spec goes into more detail, but these changes should actually help users with slow/limited bandwidth. It will send one query to one server (one of Canonical’s) that will return both a list of local scopes to use, and the results from all the server-side scopes that it thinks are useful. Then the dash will search only those local scopes that the smart-scope-service thought would be relevant. The end result should be fewer remote queries that before.
If you have no internet access, then obviously you won’t be able to use these remote services, but your local scopes that only search local data (apps & files) will still be run.
I don’t really care for Internet services integration and don’t want shopping advertisements and stuff like that.
I prefer fast performance and a less cluttered view with only what is relevant to me.
The good news is that you can get that on Ubuntu. If you don’t like the defaults, you can change them to your liking. Turn off what you don’t want enabled all the time, or completely remove components you don’t think you’ll ever want to use. The choice is there, all we’ve done is provide the defaults we think will work best for the most users.
no, you have defaulted to what gives canonical more money. if you did respected user’s then this stuff would be disable by default and it would be an opt-in an not an opt-out. you know people rarely change defaults, especially the target audience of ubuntu. changing defaults requires effort and knowledge.
your behaviour is similar to those in the windows platform in which software developers and distributors attach their software with third party adware, spyware, and malware, all selected by default, and then their users end up with their systems all screwed up.
in this case this type of dishonest, rude, and unscrupulous behaviour gains a new dimension. the operating system is an adware, spyware, malware machine. and this is without any user intervention.
you have so little respect for your users for the sake of 30 pieces of silver.
Again, trying to appease people who automatically and always assume the very worst about us, and publicly accuse us of such, is not an effective use of our time and resources. If you hate us, go find a distro that makes us happy.
John, you need to understand that most people are susceptible to conflict-of-interest. The folks at Canonical are most assuredly well-intentioned and most assuredly have a conflict of interest here. In other words, your critique of their ability to choose the right default setting is SPOT ON, but you’ll do better if you don’t try to be attacking in your tone.
The deal here is simple: Canonical folks, we don’t hate you personally. Admit that you have a conflict of interest though. You can’t possibly claim to be objective about the opt-in or opt-out being the right choice. So the only honorable thing to do is to be conservative and avoid the option that might infringe on privacy. A good option would be to have a setting on install that forces an answer from all users, thus being a neutral ground between opt-in and opt-out.
An install-time option would only be seen by the person installing it, not every user of the system (or potentially *any* user of the system).
Ubuntu is provided for free, so I don’t see why people are so shocked when Canonical needs to some way to balance its checkbooks. Taking the long view, perhaps that is better for users.
And I don’t even use Unity, by the way.
CLA as well?
Im puzzled by this :/ Why does Canonical need more than GPL?
The same reasons the FSF needs more
Hey, it’s very nice that you’re thinking more about privacy, but it would be even better if the source for the server-side service was released. That way everyone could have a better idea of what’s going on, what data is collected, and what is missing from it. It would greatly boost everyone’s trust in Canonical’s handling of the dash.
I agree with this 110%.
Michael,
I previously saw some discussion about pre-populating the search box with text that indicated the search was going to contact networked resources. Is this still the plan for the enhanced notification? I hope it is, that particular implementation of notification feels right to me.
The notice of online activity is the critical thing for me in the privacy discussion (now that the secure transaction bug was fixed). As long as users are informed before entering any search queries that the search is by default going to contact external servers, that meets my personal bar with regard to informed consent. The preloaded search box text, if worded well enough, will keep me from poking anyone in the eye over this again.
That’s not to say I like the opt-out approach. I’m not personally thrilled with the opt-out approach, but as long as every user can be reasonably expected to know the search will be using networked resources before they do any query, I think the privacy mandate is met. My personal dislike of out-out constructions does not by itself give me cause to strap on the the firey gauntlets of dissent. Though I’m pretty sure I’ll find another reason to be a thorn in your side, soon enough.
Or summed up in tweet-speak:
Good recovery on the privacy issue.
Jef,
The text “Search your computer and online sources” is the placeholder text for the Home lens search bar, and also the tooltip for the BfB on the Launcher. That change is already in 13.04, it landed a while back.
that should say that the online sources are completely outside users control. searching online sources is not in itself bad if that sources are controlled by the users, like for example an owncloud installation.
the text should say “local and external third party sources”. but again this simple change would be too much honest for canonical. canonical that doesn’t even has the decency of making all this stuff opt-in!
According to the design the user should be able to opt-out of any scope, even server-side scopes. Scopes may search local data, remote user data (2nd party data let’s call it) or remote public data (3rd party data). Given that fact, it would be inaccurate for it to say “external third party sources”.
Your approach of calling us dishonest and indecent in no way inspires us to go out of our way to appease you.
Your responses and attitude here toward users concerned by Canonical’s emerging behavior with regard to privacy are instructive.
Opt-in over opt-out is widely accepted as a principle by those who respect others’ privacy.
The fact that many users had no idea their local searches were going over the wire until they saw Amazon ads in their results is clear evidence that Canonical was, in this instance, at the very least deceptive if not dishonest. Whether or not it’s indecent is a value judgment each person must make on his or her own.
Telling people who are upset over this to get lost and find another distro, or chide them that they shall not be “appeased” by raising their concerns, is pathetic.
Whether opt-in over opt-out is really an “accepted principle” is very much open to debate. It is a matter of opinion, certainly. Regardless, Ubuntu is advertised as “Linux for Human Beings” not “Linux for absolute privacy protection”. As such, our defaults are selected based on what produces the best user experience. If privacy is your primary concern, there are niche distros that cater to you.
Canonical has already taken steps towards being more up front about the fact that searches will be sent to online services, and we have also taken steps to give users more fine-grained control over which of those services are used. We have listened to reasonable people who raised reasonable concerns, and we’ve taken reasonable steps to address them without sacrificing the user experience.
But I’m not going to spend time writing code for people who call me indecent or dishonest, because there is no chance of my code making them happy. Instead I choose to spend my time writing code that produces new/better features for the people who I can make happy.
Good enough for me. I’ll buy you a beer at my curling club next time I see you in Fairbanks.
-jef
How is this different from Unity updates that have landed already in 13.04? I was under the impression that the daily builds of Unity in raring were actually Unity 7.0.
This changes the Dash & Home Lens to use the new smart scope service (and also moves the Home lens into an actual lens instead of special code in the Dash itself)
Hi Michael, I’m a relatively new user to Ubuntu almost a year now I just moved from 12.04 to 12.10. Because of that I have very little history with the squabbling over what people think Canonical should be or have done. Personally it really doesn’t matter the end product speaks for itself.
While others have chosen this forum to criticize and berate you and Canonical I applaud your tack in dealing with these attacks.
Thank you for your hard work and a great product.
To the future and beyond
I agree John B. I rarely see posts like “Thanks for writing great free software.” It’s a tough crowd out there and I appreciate all of Ubuntu’s and Debian’s hard work on an OS that I use every single day at home and work.
Closer integration is useful but there is a genuine privacy concern. Is there somewhere we can get a thorough disclosure/explanation of the scope of the data being collected and how it is used?
Its not a matter of personal trust or distrust but a professional expectation of disclosure. While its certainly not mandated, it would improve the reception of tools like this which use data mining to produce a better user experience.
Josh, I provided links in the post to the Spec page on the wiki, as well as a recording of the On-Air hangout where we presented the changes to members of the community who had provided reasonable criticism of the Shopping Lens.
Can you please stop acting like a 3rd grade bully when people complaint about Canonical’s policy regarding privacy issues? People are not attacking you, Michael, they are attacking Canonical.
Canonical is a company and company’s shouldn’t be trusted. Never. Ever. Period. There are more than founded reasons to suspect you (Canonical) are doing all this for the wrong reasons, no matter how much you (Michael) believe yourself and want everyone to believe it’s for “the best user experience” (why do you keep spouting these marketing speak lines, btw? It doesn’t help precisely…)
If you (Michael) are unable to handle harsh criticism for things your employer (Canonical) does, just ask your employer to hire someone who actually knows how to talk to customers and stop talking to the public about what Ubuntu is or isn’t doing. It’s not just those few people you reply with arrogance are leaving: for each of your childish replies, Canonical is actually losing many potential customers. It’s pretty obvious you don’t get that, so ask management for a substitute and go back to coding only.
Back on the subject: yes, it’s pretty much widely accepted that opt-out means bad intentions from the publisher/developer, while well advertised opt-in will bring you basically the same income with tons of confidence attached. Then again, you aren’t in PR, as a I said. How would you know that?
Oh, and btw, where can we download the server-side open source software you’re using for all this again?
The scopes that will be collecting the data (both locally and on the server, since the new API allows us to run the same code in both places) can be found here: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-scopes
Note that not all of those scopes will make it into the default install of Ubuntu.
canonical michael ubuntu privacy people
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