Ubuntu Funding/Support

[apothecaryaaron]

I was doing my usual distro-hopping (on my second hard drive, Ubuntu is my functioning OS) and I came across something I found interesting. Mint comes with its Google search plugin modified to use their Google page, making them money on every search. Some Mint users complained about this, but I think it was more because there was no original Google plugin available out of the box.

This got me wondering, why doesn't Canonical/Ubuntu do something like this? It could be as simple as a shell script you download from here in the forums or the main page, that extracts a tarball into the searchplugins folder. That way, the original Google and all defaults are there unchanged, and no one has this "advertising" on their computer without actively pursuing it.

I personally would have no problem helping to fund the programmers, servers, bandwidth, etc. by using a Google search that has Ubuntu written on it. If one wanted to take it further, and Ubuntu image search could be made, as well as a plugin to search these forums. I believe there are many of us in this community who would take that extra second to download this. After all, many people here specifically recommend BitTorrent for downloading .iso's because it decreases bandwidth use, and many host their own images for the same reason, so this feels to me to be along those same lines. Actually it requires less thought or effort.

Just a thought. I'm not sure of the politics/legalities/business/ethics/etc. of a Google search, so I understand I could be totally off track. And if this has been mentioned before, I'm sorry. I did a Google search for "Google search" and the fabric of space-time started to rip, so I got scared and closed the browser.

[madjr]

I was doing my usual distro-hopping (on my second hard drive, Ubuntu is my functioning OS) and I came across something I found interesting. Mint comes with its Google search plugin modified to use their Google page, making them money on every search. Some Mint users complained about this, but I think it was more because there was no original Google plugin available out of the box.

This got me wondering, why doesn't Canonical/Ubuntu do something like this? It could be as simple as a shell script you download from here in the forums or the main page, that extracts a tarball into the searchplugins folder. That way, the original Google and all defaults are there unchanged, and no one has this "advertising" on their computer without actively pursuing it.

I personally would have no problem helping to fund the programmers, servers, bandwidth, etc. by using a Google search that has Ubuntu written on it. If one wanted to take it further, and Ubuntu image search could be made, as well as a plugin to search these forums. I believe there are many of us in this community who would take that extra second to download this. After all, many people here specifically recommend BitTorrent for downloading .iso's because it decreases bandwidth use, and many host their own images for the same reason, so this feels to me to be along those same lines. Actually it requires less thought or effort.

Just a thought. I'm not sure of the politics/legalities/business/ethics/etc. of a Google search, so I understand I could be totally off track. And if this has been mentioned before, I'm sorry. I did a Google search for "Google search" and the fabric of space-time started to rip, so I got scared and closed the browser.

this is one of the things i hated about mint, so i either don't upgrade firefox from their repos or i download the google plugin from http://mycroft.mozdev.org/

that search plugin was f*cking annoying.

i hate mint for doing that.

if i wanted that kind of crap i would use freespire...

also search results using that thing were very bad and no cache page option.. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

a donation page or hardware store would do them better

[apothecaryaaron]

this is one of the things i hated about mint, so i either don't upgrade firefox from their repos or i download the google plugin from http://mycroft.mozdev.org/

that search plugin was f*cking annoying.

i hate mint for doing that.

if i wanted that kind of crap i would use freespire...

also search results using that thing were very bad and no cache page option.. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

a donation page or hardware store would do them better

I read a lot of things with the same opinion as yours. That is why it would have to only be implemented as an option. I don't like being forced to use something either.

I hadn't noticed the results being any different. I will compare them tonight by opening two tabs and doing the same search with both. That's an interesting thought, and I wonder how they did that. The plugins looked very similar to me.