[throwaaskjdfh]

As a meta-point, I'm kinda surprised how attitudes among programmers have reversed in the last 20 years, from phoning home being suspicious under any circumstances, to telemetry being indispensable. I suspect the two sides of the argument map pretty closely to age.

[ghoward]

I agree, although I am one of the younger generation that believes what the older generation is saying on this one.

[BoxOfRain]

Me too, I’m younger but very much in the boat of “paying for software quality with your privacy is usually a bad trade”. Nothing inherently needs to phone home, it’s a design choice rather than a mandate chiselled in a stone tablet. If people want privacy over speedier bug fixes that’s a legitimate thing to want.

Open source users tend to be more privacy conscious anyway, even if Ultimate Guitar / Muse aren’t acting in bad faith (and they do have a bad reputation) then they’re showing a shocking lack of understanding about what they’ve taken over.