unity-design team mailing list archive

[Thibaut Brandscheid <randaltor@xxxxxx>]

*Houston, we have a problem*

*Part I - The Problem*
I just read an interview on
linuxuser.co.uk<http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/features/ubuntu-11-10-launch-interview-unity-is-here-to-stay%E2%80%A6/>with
Gerry Carr.

*With this release, we’re bringing out the Music Lens, which offers a
> Dash-like experience and allows you to use the search bar to search for,
> let’s say, Abba – it’ll display all the Abba that you have locally on your
> machine, and it’ll also display any Abba available in the Ubuntu One cloud,
> **and then also it will – and I’m not quite sure if this is going to land
> at release, or just after – but basically it’ll also allow you to access
> all the Abba that’s available on the Amazon Music Store or on the Ubuntu One
> Music Store, so I can purchase that directly within the same Lens.*
>

After reading this I started Oneiric in VirtualBox and yes, there is a
'Available for Purchase' section in the music lens.

Now, the problem:
Dose this mean every time, I repeat, *every time* I search for a song on my
computer with the Music Lens (11.10 or bigger) will query an DB in the
Internet?

If this is true, Ubuntu & I have a problem. A privacy problem to be more
specific.

I don't think that an average user expects that every time he enters a song
title into the Music Lens it will be send through the net - I believe that
he expects that every thing stays locally and will be processed on his
computer as long as he dose not clearly interact with the net (browsing,
uploading files to U1, chatting, using Gwibber ...).

One big reason why I use Linux is that it doesn't send all kind of
informations to companies (Amazon - if I would not care I would buy a Mac).


*Part II - Suggestion to solve the problem*
Okay, vented enough frustration, now something constructive.

The approach of the file lens doesn't work here, it is not "possible" to
store a Ubuntu One Music Store and Amazon Music Store title DB on Ubuntu
locally to prevent sending of just tipped-in informations always through the
Internet.

My solution is as simple as powerful → a Shop Lens.
What again a new lens, but wait. The shop lens could combine different
sources and display search entries in categories. This would solve above
raised problems. The user expects the shop lens to query online DB's to get
results and it would avoid that every entered text phrase to the music lens
would be send through the net (without user knowledge, and maybe without his
accordance).
It would also "debug" the unpleasant (and less liked) 'Apps Available for
Download' in the application lens (I like the idea of 'Available for
Download', but not in the App Lens - where I see it all times but use it
only ~0.5% of the time).

If the Shop Lens is extensionable by add-ons other vendors could add there
own shop to it. This way it would be the perfect place to search for new
input (free & paid) and for the user would be clear what he gets there
(better than mixing different topics in to one lens → 'Available...' in
App-Music lens).

Uff, pretty long mail :)
your turn

Thibaut


PS: I know, don't make lenses for everything. But this time I think it would
be a good idea to separate local and online queries and to have one place in
the system to search for new stuff.
PPS: How to turn the 'Available for Purchase' function in Oneiric off?