> Ubuntu has a lot of telemetry on by default (unlike Deepin, they disclose this, but I'm pointing this out) and for many years, Canonical really tried to push the whole account login thing (RIP Ubuntu One).
You can try to make me conflate Linux and Ubuntu but I'm not going to. Debian and Slackware don't have those kinds of things, and, more to the point, you can use the Linux kernel without those kinds of things. It's both technically and legally possible. Can't really say that about Windows or macOS.
> like user accounts (tied to app stores or whatever)
No, most package repos don't require user accounts.
> giving back telemetry (which is often really, really important for developers to have)
Plenty of developers manage just fine without it. The developers of most of the software on a Linux system, for example, with the exception of mainstream web browsers.
> or are part of major enterprise servicing agreements that have a lot of tracking and management by design.
Enterprise is Enterprise. They're off in a world all their own.
> But I think that ignores a fundamental way humans use computers and the web -- regardless of OS. You're being surveilled. Linux isn't going to save you.
Inviting the surveillance into my home is different from being watched when I go outside.
You can try to make me conflate Linux and Ubuntu but I'm not going to. Debian and Slackware don't have those kinds of things, and, more to the point, you can use the Linux kernel without those kinds of things. It's both technically and legally possible. Can't really say that about Windows or macOS.
> like user accounts (tied to app stores or whatever)
No, most package repos don't require user accounts.
> giving back telemetry (which is often really, really important for developers to have)
Plenty of developers manage just fine without it. The developers of most of the software on a Linux system, for example, with the exception of mainstream web browsers.
> or are part of major enterprise servicing agreements that have a lot of tracking and management by design.
Enterprise is Enterprise. They're off in a world all their own.
> But I think that ignores a fundamental way humans use computers and the web -- regardless of OS. You're being surveilled. Linux isn't going to save you.
Inviting the surveillance into my home is different from being watched when I go outside.