I'd like to talk about adding an randomized, rotating UUID to DNF and rpm-ostree updates which we could use to better count installed systems. The IP-based counting we currently use is deeply flawed, and we'd really benefit from getting more accurate numbers. This would * let us make better strategic decisions based on our actual base of installed systems, and * help us demostrate growth and impact to various sponsors. To be completely candid: this would be incredibly useful as I advocate for Fedora within Red Hat, but no one @redhat has directed me to ask for it. And its *not* just Red Hat — this would be useful in talking to our various hardware partners too and other potential sponsors. Long ago, we had Smolt, but this was opt-in and didn't present a very complete picture. I'd like to propose we do something similar to what openSUSE describes here: https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Statistics. That is: A completely random UUID used only for this purpose, and used for counting rather than tracking. We could refresh the UUID periodically (like monthly) to ensure that long-term tracking wouldn't even be an option (while still distinguishing between short-lived cloud or test instances). And of course there would be some way to opt out. Recently Canonical has implemented a much greater amount of data collection https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2018-February/040139.html, and while maybe we might want to look at reviving an opt-in system, I don't think we need that right now. (Historically, we've had a lot of resistance to similar proposals as opt-out, and the value of opt-in is low.) Basically, all I want is that UUID plus CPU arch plus ID, VERSION_ID, and VARIANT_ID from /etc/os-release. (And, I'd also like to start using VARIANT_ID for labs, spins, docker images, etc.) What do you think? Does the suggested plan make sense? -- Matthew Miller <mattdm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Fedora Project Leader _______________________________________________ council-discuss mailing list -- council-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to council-discuss-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
