[Github-comments] [geany/geany] Geany needs spyware 🙄 (Discussion #2918)

[Enrico Tröger]

> > To be clear, I do not support software having spyware...
> 
> I've edited the original post to make clear that this is a strawman proposal for discussion.
> 
> I also don't like spyware, but maybe an opt-in plugin that reports limited information could be acceptable?

Before talking about solutions, let's start at the beginning:
- what kind of information would you like to collect?
- what results would you expect from collecting and analysing these information?
- who should collect and analyse the data?

You probably will never get accurate numbers of users using Geany and what plugins they use:
- you will get data only from users participating
- such usage data might get outdated fast
- how do you count "use": users might start Geany once a month to edit a certain file, or start Geany in their spare time when coding, use Geany all day for professional work, used Geany some time in the past, users might have Geany installed but never tried it, ...

Even if you had such information, which problem would it really solve?

I agree that such information would be kind of interesting but, IMHO, nothing more than this.
Considering the amount of work it would require, for a technical implementation, the analysis of collected data but also to sort out all potential legal issues, I don't think it's worth.

Also to consider: maybe some, maybe many, maybe most users might refuse to use Geany if there was something like spyware added.
Even if it would be optional. 
Even if it would help the further development of Geany. 
Even if the collected data would be anonymous.

*I personally would uninstall if something like this would happen.*

> > I don't know what legal issues spyware may have, even if its possible to turn it off.
> 
> Many programs "check for updates". Software from larger companies do more, but of course, they likely have more monetary resources for legal battles than Geany does.

The UpdateChecker plugin (https://github.com/geany/geany-plugins/tree/master/updatechecker) already does checking for updates.
Actually, it already sends the Geany version to the server. But this information is neither stored nor analysed.
Even if, it wouldn't say much as this plugin is mainly only useful on Windows and maybe MacOS. The majority of users (assumption by me) doesn't need this plugin because they are using Linux and a package manager.


Alternative ideas to "spyware":

- Debian collects package usage statistics in the Popcon project. Geany: https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=geany Geany-Plugins: https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=geany-plugins
  Maybe this already helps? Note, these statistics represent only Debian users who opted in to the data collection.
  
- a few years ago, there was already the idea of creating a user survey to ask users how they use Geany. As far as I remember, it never happened because nobody has done it.

- maybe the issue tracker and mailing lists already give a good impression how and on what operating systems Geany is used. Obviously, the amount of users reporting issues and asking on mailing lists are only a fraction of the overall user base but might be somewhat representive.


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