The latest Ubuntu controversy is that in Ubuntu 12.10 searching from the main “Dash” will return Amazon affiliate results as well as “normal” results. These aren’t “ads” but they are (according to Mark Shuttleworth) simply “products”. OMG Ubuntu has some commentary as Mark Shuttleworth Explains Ubuntu’s New ‘Amazon Suggestions’ Feature:
Amazon product results, whilst undoubtedly useful, generate a small cut of revenue for Canonical and Ubuntu each time a purchase is made. So were they implemented solely to be self-serving? Or is their introduction a win-win; a way to give users a new feature and make money for Ubuntu at the same time?
What do you think? Overblown, or start of a mass migration away from Ubuntu to Mint, Fedora, or another distro?
Personally I’ll be ignoring this until it becomes annoying (if it does).