Replacement app launcher for Unity

[bcarlowise]

All, I am looking for a replacement application launcher for Unity. I removed zeitgeist as it is a serious security and privacy violation and I've noticed that it removes the launcher for applications. I need a replacement application launcher.
On another note, am I the only person who sees what a massive violation of both privacy and security zeitgeist poses? I am appalled that it has become a standard app in Ubuntu. What gives??

[kerry_s]

why don't you just log out & select classic from the session menu.

no, i see nothing wrong with zeitgeist & the way it's used in unity.
http://wiki.zeitgeist-project.com/Getting_Started#Unity

[bcarlowise]

why don't you just log out & select classic from the session menu.

no, i see nothing wrong with zeitgeist & the way it's used in unity.
http://wiki.zeitgeist-project.com/Getting_Started#Unity

Seriously, did you read my post? I like the new look and want to use Unity but without zeitgeist. You may very well see nothing wrong with zeitgeist but that does not mean it is not a serious privacy and security breach.

[ottosykora]

I have just yesterday tested the life CD of the new ubuntu, did not so far know that they inserted this nonsense to it.
I mean if this is the way ubuntu and gnome and what ever is heading to, we will have to start look for some useful alternative. As gnome3 will use the zeitgeist too and gnome2 will be then soon 'legacy' and probably not developed anymore, this will mean for many people to look for alternate system.

I would also consider zeitgeist as malware rather anything useful.

[bcarlowise]

I have just yesterday tested the life CD of the new ubuntu, did not so far know that they inserted this nonsense to it.
I mean if this is the way ubuntu and gnome and what ever is heading to, we will have to start look for some useful alternative. As gnome3 will use the zeitgeist too and gnome2 will be then soon 'legacy' and probably not developed anymore, this will mean for many people to look for alternate system.

I would also consider zeitgeist as malware rather anything useful.

Personally, I am with you on zeitgeist being malware. I cannot for the life of me understand why Canonical has decided to include such an application as basic functionality moving forward. Such an application is so obviously similar to malware that it's inclusion in ANY linux software distribution is just plain absurd.

[kerry_s]

privacy & security is a myth, your on the net, world wide, if its on you computer it probably came over the net, someone out there already has a copy.

if you like unity then use it, the whole unity thing is all compiz, there are no parts & pieces.
if you switch to classic your dealing with gnome with many parts, you can easily change that to look like unity using the dock of your choice or even the standard panel with say dockbarx.

if security is your concern, don't put nothing in your computer you never want seen, it's that simple.

[bcarlowise]

privacy & security is a myth, your on the net, world wide, if its on you computer it probably came over the net, someone out there already has a copy.

if you like unity then use it, the whole unity thing is all compiz, there are no parts & pieces.
if you switch to classic your dealing with gnome with many parts, you can easily change that to look like unity using the dock of your choice or even the standard panel with say dockbarx.

if security is your concern, don't put nothing in your computer you never want seen, it's that simple.

Seriously, you need to grow up. You're not contributing anything to my discussion topic. Privacy and security is a valid concern for anyone who gets online just as it is everyday life in general and your response is pointless. I could just as well make the statement "just being alive means you give up your privacy and security and if you don't like that then you could just stop living." That statement is as much nonsense as yours. Please stop cluttering my post with your nonsense.

[qamelian]

Seriously, you need to grow up. You're not contributing anything to my discussion topic. Privacy and security is a valid concern for anyone who gets online just as it is everyday life in general and your response is pointless. I could just as well make the statement "just being alive means you give up your privacy and security and if you don't like that then you could just stop living." That statement is as much nonsense as yours. Please stop cluttering my post with your nonsense.

It might help if you actually defined what it is about Zeitgeist that bothers you. Unless you provide specifics, all you have done so far is make unfounded, inflammatory statements.

How about helping understand exactly what you find so objectionable? :)

[bcarlowise]

It might help if you actually defined what it is about Zeitgeist that bothers you. Unless you provide specifics, all you have done so far is make unfounded, inflammatory statements.

How about helping understand exactly what you find so objectionable? :)

Although the point of my topic was not what I find objectionable about zeitgeist I think your point is fair enough. Basically, zeitgeist appears to log just about everything to do with a user's activity and store it for use by other applications. Now, while someone would have to get access to your pc and get access to the activity log, once someone decides to target that activity log via malware (and it WILL happen eventually) then you effectively become an open book. For years there has been malware out there that has attempted to do exactly what zeitgeist is doing and it has rightly been considered malware and a huge invasion of privacy so I am baffled as to why people consider this to be ok. I would find it less objectionable I suppose if it was an optional application that could be removed or disabled without affecting the usability of Unity but as it stands it cannot since it provides the launcher for finding and launching a person's list of installed applications. That takes me back to the reason for my post which is "Is there another application launcher that can be installed to replace the one provided by Unity?"
Hope this helps.

[qamelian]

Although the point of my topic was not what I find objectionable about zeitgeist I think your point is fair enough. Basically, zeitgeist appears to log just about everything to do with a user's activity and store it for use by other applications. Now, while someone would have to get access to your pc and get access to the activity log, once someone decides to target that activity log via malware (and it WILL happen eventually) then you effectively become an open book. For years there has been malware out there that has attempted to do exactly what zeitgeist is doing and it has rightly been considered malware and a huge invasion of privacy so I am baffled as to why people consider this to be ok. I would find it less objectionable I suppose if it was an optional application that could be removed or disabled without affecting the usability of Unity but as it stands it cannot since it provides the launcher for finding and launching a person's list of installed applications. That takes me back to the reason for my post which is "Is there another application launcher that can be installed to replace the one provided by Unity?"
Hope this helps.
Have you tried any of the other dock style applications, such as Docky, Cairo-dock, or AWN? They may be more to your liking.

As for your reasons for disliking Zeitgeist, I understand what you're getting at now, but I think you are missing the point. The malware you cite with similar functionality worked with the intent of making the information gathered available to third parties without your knowledge or consent. Zeitgeist simply uses the information gathered for interaction with other applications on your one system. I fail to see how that can logically be called an invasion of privacy. If this is how you define "invasion of privacy", then there are many other forms of interactions between applications on your computer that must also be considered such.

[ottosykora]

well if an application notes and stores anything happening on a computer just for the reason other apps can share this knowledge, then I call that malware. If other apps can share such information then all is getting open door. If the information is stored it is already enough to make any other app to misuse it, it is getting so simple.

Therefore a system which does simply collect everything just in the case someone may need it, is to be considered malware in my opinion.

[qamelian]

well if an application notes and stores anything happening on a computer just for the reason other apps can share this knowledge, then I call that malware. If other apps can share such information then all is getting open door. If the information is stored it is already enough to make any other app to misuse it, it is getting so simple.

Therefore a system which does simply collect everything just in the case someone may need it, is to be considered malware in my opinion.
In that case, almost every modern program is malware to some extent. You have a very weird and, in my opinion, poor understanding of what actually constitutes malware. By definition, it must be designed with malicious intent in mind. That is not the case with Zeitgeist. It is no more malware than your web browser, email client, or favourite MMO game.

[kerry_s]

Seriously, you need to grow up. You're not contributing anything to my discussion topic. Privacy and security is a valid concern for anyone who gets online just as it is everyday life in general and your response is pointless. I could just as well make the statement "just being alive means you give up your privacy and security and if you don't like that then you could just stop living." That statement is as much nonsense as yours. Please stop cluttering my post with your nonsense.

sure, believe what you want.

i already told you there's nothing you can do with in the unity desktop, it's all tied together by compiz.
in gnome classic, it's still different parts, you can easily replace or modify the panels to get that unity look.
dockbarx, if i remember right, just happens to have a unity theme to help you get that look. the app menu is already installed, you just add it to the panel.
you do have to add dockbarx ppa, if your going that way.
https://launchpad.net/~dockbar-main/+archive/ppa
you'll also need this:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=103732
etc...

my last post :)

just a real quick example of changing gnome classic, i'm not going to go all the way, just enough so you can see it can be done.

[bcarlowise]

Have you tried any of the other dock style applications, such as Docky, Cairo-dock, or AWN? They may be more to your liking.

As for your reasons for disliking Zeitgeist, I understand what you're getting at now, but I think you are missing the point. The malware you cite with similar functionality worked with the intent of making the information gathered available to third parties without your knowledge or consent. Zeitgeist simply uses the information gathered for interaction with other applications on your one system. I fail to see how that can logically be called an invasion of privacy. If this is how you define "invasion of privacy", then there are many other forms of interactions between applications on your computer that must also be considered such.

Le me provide a more detailed explanation as well as an example of what I am talking about. Yes, the app itself is not technically an invasion of privacy since it collects the info for the user rather than some unknown third party with malicious intent; however, what it does do is collect info from various "apps" and store that info in one place. All someone would have to do is, via malware, target that one file with all the user's activity info and now they have a treasure chest of info for various malicious activity. For example, I have attached a screenshot showing the contents of the activity.sqlite file where such info is stored. I purposely visited several websites such as a bank website, facebook and gmail. As well, I opened some bogus documents such as "passwords.txt" and "logins.txt" to simulate an everyday user who might store such info in a file for their use to remember such info. Now, if zeitgeist is tracking such information, then anyone who obtains the log with that info now has access to a users websites such as banking, social media and email as well as that person's logins and passwords. As well they would have access to actual paths/locations of user info on the computer. Sound far fetched? Not at all. That is the type of stuff that is already happening without the help of an app such as zeitgeist that collects all this info in one place. Frankly, zeitgeist just makes the use of maliciously obtained personal info so much easier for cyber thieves.
There currently exists no easy mechanism to remove one's traces of user activity such as recent documents/files and or web activity (since the description lists that it tracks web activity as well). Such functionality as being able to remove traces of one's web activity as well as recent files/docs is the most basic of safety/privacy tools. Now, if there were an easy way to either turn off or adjust the level of logging that would be a different story. At least then, a user would have the option to log as much or as little as they wanted but as it stands a user is forced to have all his activity collected and at put at risk.

[Copper Bezel]

By the time Zeitgeist's web history is working, so will its application blacklist be. Both are pending features.

Zeitgeist is also no different from the logs that ordinary Gnome applications keep in your Recent Documents list. Frankly, I don't even see why it's any more useful, or why it exists as a project at all.

[ottosykora]

>almost every modern program is malware to some extent.<

yes this is true also, but with some limit. If app1 stores information about its own operations and uses it for its internal work it is certanly not ok, but it is kind of common.
If on the other side an app is designed mainly for the purpose to store all infos from all other apps and serve all other apps with that info, then it is definitely wrong and such concept should not find its way particularly to important things like linux gui.
After all the reason why some people want use linux is that they wanted avoid spyware OSes by competitors.

[Copper Bezel]

Worry about Zeitgeist when a Linux virus actually exists.

Again, as I assume you TL;DR'd these points,

* There are options; try Docky and Gnome-Do, for instance.

* Zeitgeist is implementing a user-specified application and folder blacklist in future versions.

* Basic global recent documents functionality, which is intended to create a log of every file action you take on your machine, has been a core Gnome functionality for several years. It's actually a fairly Linux way of doing things - logging actions and storing settings in an interoperable way.

* Use of this shared list under Gnome is, in fact, more common than application-specific recent documents lists.

[akand074]

From Zeitgeist wiki (http://wiki.zeitgeist-project.com/Getting_Started)


You might hear FUD that Zeitgeist is a malware/spyware which tracks your activities. This is not a definition of malware/spyware. They record their activity, steal your data without your approval and sneak into the system without system. They have a desructive intention.
Contrast this with zeitgeist, it records events so that it can be used for constructive purposes. It's like nuclear technology. Use it constructivly, it will benefit mankind, use it destructivly and you will be harmed.
One concern people raise is that if some malware is installed, then it can steal the zeitgeist data. In this scenario, if a malware is installed, then you are at a bigger risk than just getting your zeitgeist data stolen. Your pidgin passwords are stored in plain text in your home directory. Your browser's history is very easily accessible. If you have not set the master password in Firefox, then even your passwords are available to the malware.


Zeitgeist can be very useful because it allows programs (like Unity) to show you applications or files you have used most often or recently, this way you can access what you want much quicker. There are similar things in all operating systems really. Like it said in that quote, if they can access zeitgeist they can access just about anything, so you aren't really any more safe. If I'm not mistaken, zeitgeist isn't even in your home folder? (I couldn't find it there) Meaning that you'll likely need root privileges to take it. If you gave a malware root privileges yourself well your out of luck. But regardless it's no more an issue than anything else. GNU/Linux operating systems are really secure, and the chances of that file being taken anytime in the near future is essentially 0. There is a chance of getting into a car accident if you drive, does that mean you should take a less efficient means of transportation to avoid that? No, you just be careful. A computer is only as secure as the user. Don't download anything that you are unsure as to what it is. If you aren't confident in yourself, stick to stuff in the Ubuntu repositories. Everything has it's own security issues, what's important is that you are aware of them and you be safe about it. The only way someone will take your zeitgeist info is if you let them. Same with your chat password or text files with passwords. I wipe my history/cache etc. very regularly, I doubt there is copies of it lying around your computer, I think most banking websites are designed not to cache them on your computer (or cache them encrypted). Ubuntu is secure, don't worry so much, just be smart. If it bothers you that much, well then use a super high security OS, like backtrack linux (http://www.backtrack-linux.org/). Otherwise, welcome to the real world, where you take care of yourself. No offense intended, I'm just trying to say that in my opinion, you can only be so security conscious, and that you're already more secure than 95% of users who don't use GNU/Linux OS regularly, so you have much less to worry about and much less likely to be a target.

[qamelian]

Post 18, we have a winner! :)

[stinkeye]

For the paranoid....
Privacy settings are coming to Zeitgeist (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/04/privacy-settings-are-coming-to-zeitgeist/)

[bcarlowise]

For the paranoid....
Privacy settings are coming to Zeitgeist (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/04/privacy-settings-are-coming-to-zeitgeist/)

Perfect!

[thebelial]

Have you tried any of the other dock style applications, such as Docky, Cairo-dock, or AWN? They may be more to your liking.

As for your reasons for disliking Zeitgeist, I understand what you're getting at now, but I think you are missing the point. The malware you cite with similar functionality worked with the intent of making the information gathered available to third parties without your knowledge or consent. Zeitgeist simply uses the information gathered for interaction with other applications on your one system. I fail to see how that can logically be called an invasion of privacy. If this is how you define "invasion of privacy", then there are many other forms of interactions between applications on your computer that must also be considered such.

I agree. Zeitgeist is no more an invasion of privacy than your email app of choice. Or any app that you enter personal information in that's including in your os of choice. I'm sure there's plenty of apps where you store info you don't want anyone else seeing. Those aren't malware, are they?

These programs aren't made with the intent of distributing your info to other parties to do harm.

[aldeby]

well if an application notes and stores anything happening on a computer just for the reason other apps can share this knowledge, then I call that malware. If other apps can share such information then all is getting open door. If the information is stored it is already enough to make any other app to misuse it, it is getting so simple.

I absolutely agree with ottoskyora statement. It's the same as hosting a crocodile at home: it's not dangerous as far as he follows the rules and keeps quiet, but it's a matter of a few seconds or one security bug to fu*k up all your privacy and security at once. Do we really need to host such a crocodile right in our home?

[Larkspur]

I absolutely agree with ottoskyora statement. It's the same as hosting a crocodile at home: it's not dangerous as far as he follows the rules and keeps quiet, but it's a matter of a few seconds or one security bug to fu*k up all your privacy and security at once. Do we really need to host such a crocodile right in our home?

Well first of all, Zeitgeist only stores file names and locations, not file contents, so when this malware takes the database file, all it will know is where the files are and when you opened them. As malware goes, it's not going to make the makers much money, is it?