Here's a thing that I just can't understand: how FOSS developers can remain apolitical knowing full well that proprietary technology and tracking are our one-way tickets to a 1984 cyberpunk nightmare... Every FOSS software store I know of just says "License: Proprieatry" and stops right there, except for one: F-Droid (https://f-droid.org/), a FOSS app store for Android, a platform so locked-down that it's de-facto proprietary... Ironic, isn't it? Here's how F-Droid reports anti-features: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroidclient/uploads/a7abf777c5b1b87ea75db867c51246a8/Screenshot_1565122648.png They even cosider anonymous telemetry (like Firefox health reports) an anti-feature unless it's fully opt-out (as opposed to opt-in). Earns them mad respect from me. Discover should start reporting anti-features as well. In fact, I think you should consider linking directly to hard truths such as https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary.html and https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy.html in your "Learn more" links, if you have the courage... For reference: https://f-droid.org/docs/Anti-Features/
> unless it's fully opt-out (as opposed to opt-in) Sorry, I meant fully opt-in, as opposed to opt-out.
Where would Discover get that information from?
Well, the "this software is proprietary" anti-feature can be easily determined from the license. I couldn't find where to check for the rest of them though. So let's source the information externally from we the people. Here's an idea: 1) Create a repository on https://gitlab.com or https://invent.kde.org. 2) Invite people via blogs, Reddit, etc. to contribute files like this: { package_names: [ "firefox", "firefox-esr", "firefox-developer-edition", "org.mozilla.firefox" ], exclude: [ { "distribution": "debian" } ], anti_features: [ "tracking" ] } 3) Use these files in Discover to report anti-features. Add a "Report an Error" link leading to a repository's wiki page. Yes, using an external source like this would mean both false positives and false negatives, but this hasn't stopped the likes of uBlock Origin, not to mention movie review sites...
"Anti-features" are highly subjective. Each person would have different opinions on what should be listed.
Hello again. :) In principle I like the idea. I share Nico's worry that this would be subjective, but the even bigger problem is that having KDE host this project would be a huge conflict of interest. KDE has a vast software library and we would not seriously be able to rate our own software without the perception or reality of preferential treatment. For example KMail and our online accounts feature allow you to connect to NextCloud as well as Google. Does the fact that we support Google amount to "promotion" such that the software would merit a badge saying "This app promotes non-free network services"? Depends how you define the word "promotes". But because it's our software, we would have to make that judgment. If we did not hit it with that badge, you know inevitably people would complain that having Google support prominently offered in the UI does amount to promotion and that we're privileging our own software by not rating it accurately. Even if we try our best to be perfectly objective, there is always an incentive for us to be kinder to our own software, and this risk plus the public perception of it would would undermine trust in KDE's ability to manage the project. Ultimately this irresolvable conflict of interest makes me feel like your proposal is a better fit for 3rd party hosting and management. You seem pretty passionate about the idea; maybe you can work on it yourself in a cross-desktop manner? Perhaps under the umbrella of the Free Software Foundation or FreeDesktop.org? Then you could implement a data feed that we could simply subscribe to in Discover and be passive consumers of the information rather than active judges whose motivations may seem suspect to users. That's what we do for AppStream metadata. This could potentially be a crowdsourced extension to AppStream, or some other similar thing However for the reason I gate--the conflict of interest--I don't think it's either realistic or ethical to do this in KDE, sorry. :)
> I don't think it's [...] ethical to do this in KDE On the contrary, it's one of the most ethical and courageous projects KDE can start. See, governments and corporations plan to enslave us, exploit us for everything we're worth, and eventually either replace us with machines outright or use bio-engineering to take away our free will. This is **secular damnation**. I don't know what else to call it. Thus, we must keep dissent and resistance possible, lest we lose everything. In today's world, neither is possible without strong privacy and information security being available to everyone, and, as we all know it, raising awareness is the necessary first step to solving any widespread issue. Besides, you can always just transfer the project to FSF, FreeDesktop.org, or some other organization that's perceived as being more impartial... > You seem pretty passionate about the idea; maybe you can work on it yourself in a cross-desktop manner? Perhaps under the umbrella of the Free Software Foundation or FreeDesktop.org? Unfortunately, I can't do it since I'm not a member of either of those organizations...
Maybe you should start it?
The project itself seems ethical, for sure, it's just not ethical for us to do it because of the conflict of interest I mentioned. That would undermine people's trust in the project and ultimately doom it. If you want to make this happen, You should see if you can start it yourself or convince someone else to host it.