Looks like I'll need to dig up more links to prove to you Starkers that MS does the same thing. Google is not as evil as you think. They all are.

Do you block Google on this site?

What you really mean is....

Google isn't alone in being evil...they are all as bad.

Clear, logical thought isn't your forte, not really...

What was this thread about again? 

I don't know either, I didn't even know this article was still going. I don't usually make articles that keep going like this. Maybe I need to study what I did here to see if I can apply it on other articles.

Go to http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=trace&host=www.immi.gov.au  It will show yoru route across the internet.  At every stop a server marks who you are, where you want to go, and where you came from.  There should be no expectation of privacy when doing anything on the internet.  (exceptions exist though . . but only to a degree).

Google's OS will collect a ton of data for them to use.  They will use it to provide services that make you want to use it more.  They will try to make money off the data they collect.  If you do not want them to collect data and use it  . . don't use their OS.

May the best greedy corporate entity win.   BTW, why so much anti-linux sentiment here, is it because the Impulse client needs IE7 to run?

You either claiming some tricky Proxyfication can hide (somehow) a trace reasonably well or refering to any server(s) wrapped into a self-looping "private" net, right?

Connect once at the proper node, you'd still become anonymous or flip "feeds" fast enough to remain undetectable through portable snatching -- welcome to wifi illusions, where these nodes fail to take responsability on illicit activities unless ordered to.

The Dream Police isn't technically advanced (by coordination or otherwise), in fact. Cuz, ISPs (international, need i insist) cash in & has the following attitudes; who cares what happens.

Slacked and relaxed, we get what we deserve or pay for.

I used linux long before I even heard of Stardock - when I got a RedHat Pro box while working a tech investment conference in Scottsdale, where RedHat was public offering it's way to Wall St. legendary status.  Now, it's just an also-ran owned by another also-ran.  Since then, I've toyed with it with a hobbyist's interest and have tried a few dozen installs of various distros on a handful of computers I have on my home LAN.

But to answer your question, I feel that what you're observing is called "back-lash" driven by two issues:

1) It never matched the hype generated.  Ever. The world hasn't just moved on from the Linux bus - the world never got on board.  Sure, there are quite a few LAMP servers out there running commercial web sites and data warehouse portals, but who cares?  Mind-share here is coming largely from home users that think LAMP is what you turn off when it's time to go to bed.

2) The Linux community presents itself quite readily as a bunch of under-sexed geeks that are very willing to give a new user absolute grief for forgetting to phrase their help and support questions in the form of an answer.  RTFMan pages works for assembly language programmers.  It does not work for Bob & Sally from Peoria that just want to fire up a computer and run some apps, play some games, and MySpace themselves into identity theft.  There are exceptions, and some linux user communities actually go well out of their way to bring in and nurture new users, but they are just that: exceptions.  And they come too late.

Eloquent and succinct...

More like humorous and innacurate.  Zealotry exists in every camp whether it's foss/Linux or propietary MS, and if you weren't trying to sound funny, you would have mentioned that a big exception to that "rule" is Canonical's Ubuntu boards.  They have done a lot and their distribution has advanced in strides to hide the nasty underworkings on the system from Bob & Sally so their plug-and-play wifi adapter and usb flash which they bought on BB works out-of-the-box, in most cases.  Technically there's nothing really windows  can do that a linux distro can't. Well, maybe give way to almost every virus/botnet/worm/spyware available out there. I give you that.

Kona, you are missing my point.  I'm not saying that MS and/or others don't collect data... or that they aren't somehow evil in their own way.  What I am saying is that I see Google as being more evil... because they scour the net for all kinds of information and seek to profit from it ALL.   Not only that, Google is persistently in your face with annoying advertising that attempts to part you from your hard come by cash.... and that pisses me off severely, which is why I block Google at every opportunity. 

So in a nutshell, kona, there is absolutely nothing you can say or do to change my mind... Google is a scavenging parasite: period.

I block Google at every opportunity on every site.

I know all this, Zubs, really, I do.  However, you too are missing my point!  For example, my ISP knows that I visit this site and others, but it does not bombard me with interest related ads... Google would, if I let it.  My ISP sends me a monthly newsletter with a number of promotions and special deals, but I subscribe to that and can opt out at any time... Google does not provide an opt out, its advertising is pesristently there unless blocked.

Furthermore, while data is disseminated across the net, point of origin and destination data (cookies and etc) largely remains untouched on servers.  It is used mostly for speed, efficiency and re-routing purposes, though government and various  law enforcement agencies do have access to it when necessary, and undestandably so, given how much internet crime there is. 

However, Google uses this point of origin/destination data to target users with localised ads and other unsolicited/unwelcomed crap.  I sure as Hell don't want to see it, but there is no opt out unless I go to extremes and install NoScript and AdBlock Pro to block Google's slimy tentacles... and I should not have to go to this extreme of installing what is for me, otherwise unnecessary software.

Yes, these things piss me off, but what really irks me is Google's incessant trawling of the net and using personal information for the purpose of adsvertising.  For example, my ex-brother-in-law  (and he's nobody important), has a Google page revealing quite a bit about him.... stuff he'd rather not be public knowledge. Nevertheless it's there and my niece curiously did a Google search on him to discover her father has a criminal record and that she has a (similarly aged) half brother and sister she knew nothing about. 

It was later revealed that most of this information was gleaned from dating sites and other forums he visited.  However, also included with those search results were numerous ads for dating agencies, sex aids and escort sevices, etc.  That is what I object to... the use of one's personal information purely to profit from associated advertising.... and nobody can tell me that is right.

They're at the top of the vanishingly small list of exceptions that I had in mind.  I didn't think it necessary to name names, because - as you help demonstrate - everyone that has any experience with *nix knows they're the one's trying their hardest to promote linux in a positive way.  Any other examples?

Try getting Linux to support a mainstream tablet laptop.  By 'support' I don't mean 'boot'.  I mean support the hardware and the capabilities of the machine.  So, for example, Vista kicks Ubuntu's butt on things like:

* display panel feature buttons

* pen stylus precision

* voice and writing recognition

* battery/power management

And if your pen-computing laptop is using FinePoint digitizing hardware for the pen, you're hosed.  Perhaps that has changed by now... I hear OpenSuse 11 had something.  Great - it's only been about two years since some of the majors flipped from Wacom-based pens to FinePoint.

[EDIT TO ADD: And if there is a question about whether or not I'm an MS "zealot" I'll say this: I would guess that I've got a larger number of entirely different operating systems running on my home LAN that you do on your home and office networks combined.  I'm not vendor-oriented.  I like bits and pieces of many operating systems.  But when it comes to end-user suitability for Joe User, MS is producing some good stuff.]

@starkers

Just sounds like very good metaserchers to me.

Yes, it has, and if it hasn't changed enough, it's not because of Linux' shortcomings, but rather there hasnt been any GOOD driver SUPPORT from 3rd party companies, like the manufacturers of the peripherials you mention. ATI only recently published thousands of pages worth of documentation about their latests GPUs, and only recently are Linux users experiencing good open-source driver support for their HD 4000 cards on Linux.  The propietary flglx drivers are very poor quality, but that's because of ATI, not Linux.  A similar situation occurs with Nvidia.  Sometimes manufacturers have gone to be outright against Linux, for reasons no one knows. 

Are you saying, then, it's perfectly OK for Google to unearth the more intimate details of your personal life and make them publicly available on the internet?

Yes, my ex-brother-in-law put stuff up on dating sites and forums, but that information was intended for acquaintances on those particular sites... not the wider general public., yet there it was, mixed up with sex toy ads and the like.  Now I have no liking whatsoever for my former brother-in-law - couldn't have happened to a nicer person - but it's the principle of the thing, that anyone's pesronal info can be used by Google to derive profit from associated advertising.

And there is nothing on this Earth that'll convince me it's right.