I just read about “Manjaro Data Donor”, a new data collection tool of its users
This is certainly not for me. Good that I moved to Endeavouros a long while ago.
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Wow. It is opt-out.
That is totally unacceptable. I would definitely be removing Manjaro if I was a user still.
I wonder if they will change their mind if they get enough push back.
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I don’t understand why people don’t trust them…
They have proven time and time again to be so competent /s
Isn’t Manjaro a for-profit?
I doubt they will back out of this, the data is probably way too valuable.
And I really don’t expect too much of a pushback from their actual userbase (it’s not like thoughtful individuals didn’t have a bunch of reasons to have moved away already)…
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I haven’t been involved with Manjaro for quite a while now but when I was, they had this habit of throwing controversial stuff out there and then pulling back if they got enough push back. I never really understood that approach to be honest. It always caused a ton of unrest in chaos.
It seems pretty calm right now but I bet it will explode as it gets more publicity.
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Yeah, same.
When I was still around they simply went with the:
“Nooooo, no, you’re just too stupid and misinterpreted what we were actually saying/doing” approach.
It’s probably their best-effort attempt at staying relevant nowadays 
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Totally agreed. Completely unacceptable.
I do not think they will. Look at all the Windoze/Facebook/Instagram/etc. followers. They newer go back and normally do not loose users …
Why would they want to copy the worst features of Windows 
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You won’t believe how silly people can be … 
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Read the article, seems like they just want hardware statistics?
There’s already Linux Hardware to gather data (with consent, of course) and they do it in a transparent manner.
Not sure what purpose sending data specifically to Manjaro will serve.
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To be fair, even Fedora (RedHat to be exact) tried sneaking in “opt-out” metrics.
But they (due to the different userbase) would have actually died on that hill had they not backed out of it.
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Using Linux/Manjaro is a choice made by the users so they’ll be conscious about their actions where as Windoze/Facebook/Instagram/etc are default options.
The purpose is pretty clear, understand the hardware configs running the distro to better target changes in the future. There is definitely benefit in having the data.
However, my perspective is that it doesn’t matter what the benefit is, you still shouldn’t be collecting data without explicit consent.
The only reason they backed down because user pushback was so vocal and aggressive.
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I am very glad that I made the decision a few months ago to move away from Manjaro and towards EndeavourOS. All this confirms it once again.
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I know.
This is why I highlighted the “difference userbase”. That’s my subjective opinion of course, but I do honestly believe that Fedora users are probably way more well informed and privacy/security conscious. (When compared to Manjaro that is, not blanket-statement generally. I’d easily say the same for Arch users for example).
P.S: For those unaware, keep in mind that Fedora Telemetry actually did get accepted by FESCo for F42, just not as “opt-out”.
Well, if Windows Recall only produced a trickle of users here, I imagine this will not be a mass influx, but some will come. Glad I made the switch already. Power to the purple!
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I have the same stance.
There’s an acceptable way of collecting data and thats not installing a background service without consent. I’m not against collecting data, just that Manjaro team thought it is nice to install a background service as if they control the computers rather than users.
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Great we went from the “14 eyes” to 15 now.
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Well… at the very least they seem to be transparent about this. Unlike the big tech companies.
Still, very glad I never used Manjaro.
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I think you’re overestimating Manjaro users. There are actually many Linux users who only use Linux because Windows can’t work on their device anymore. A person who moves away from Windows because Microsoft sucks versus a person who moves because they can’t use it anymore are two entirely different people.
All this to say, despite EndeavourOS being really popular nowadays, Manjaro is the very unfortunate “face” of Arch Linux to the “uninitiated”. Which in turn means their can’t-use-Windows-anymore user base is bigger.
Anyway, I’ve bashed Manjaro enough in my lifetime, so that’s all I’ll say. 
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Purpose of this telemetry (from their forums, reference link :
“… but we need at least some data about how Manjaro is being used by so many people around the world in order to show that the project has a future and also to plan for that future.”