I think nixpkgs should opt out of telemetry be default on behalf of it’s users, as is the default in various packages and modules. I think that’s what users would expect from it.
To that end: devenv: disable telemetry by default by kampka · Pull Request #381817 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub
I believe, if anything, it should be set using an environment variable, similar to how NIXOS_OZONE_WL is used. While telemetry can be invasive, many open source projects have privacy respecting telemetry that greatly benefits the project. I don’t think globally disabling it is fair to those projects.
Packages that have telemetry could also have options added to them to disable them with an override. If this option was given a standard name across all packages, it would be simple to disable it for a set of them.
I believe, if anything, it should be set using an environment variable, similar to how NIXOS_OZONE_WL is used.
They have chose the DO_NOT_TRACK standard, I’m not sure adding a NixOS specific new standard would improve anything here. If NixOS would specify such a standard and inadvertently land on a policy about how telemetry is handled in nixpkgs, that would of course be great.
While telemetry can be invasive, many open source projects have privacy respecting telemetry that greatly benefits the project. I don’t think globally disabling it is fair to those projects.
I’m not sure what you mean by “globally disabling”. My PR just switches the default of aforementioned environment variable for the package. People can still opt in using the same variable or by setting it in their environment
While telemetry can be invasive, many open source projects have privacy respecting telemetry that greatly benefits the project.
That may be the case, but the blog post is very shallow on the topic. In fact, it can be summarized as “we use telemetry to train AI, don’t worry about it”. Their company’s privacy policy also has no mention of it at all. I would have to go far out of my way to call that a trust building effort.
They have chose the DO_NOT_TRACK standard, I’m not sure adding a NixOS specific new standard would improve anything here. If NixOS would specify such a standard and inadvertently land on a policy about how telemetry is handled in nixpkgs, that would of course be great.
I meant as a more general solution if Nixpkgs were to disable telemetry in packages.
I’m not sure what you mean by “globally disabling”. My PR just switches the default of aforementioned environment variable for the package. People can still opt in using the same variable or by setting it in their environment
I was referring to you saying Nixpkgs should opt out of telemetry by default, not that specific PR. I think that PR is ok as long as Domen thinks it’s ok. I’m just not a fan of modifying software in ways that could go against the wishes of maintainers.
Agreed, that would be preferable.
I was referring to you saying Nixpkgs should opt out of telemetry by default, not that specific PR. I think that PR is ok as long as Domen thinks it’s ok. I’m just not a fan of modifying software in ways that could go against the wishes of maintainers.
Domen is the maintainer of the package, but he is also the owner (?) / founder of Cachix and has a commercial interest in said telemetry from what I can tell. In my opinion, this conflict of interest needs to be taken into account here. In fact, I think it would be very highly regarded if he would recuse himself on this account.
I’m not a fan of telemetry either, but I’ve never heard of a policy that disallows/discourages upstream from maintaining their own packages in nixpkgs.
Me neither and I don’t think I made any such claim.
I think this warrants a more general discussion