Does Virtualmin, Webmin and Cloudmin collect statistics from end users?

Does Virtualmin, Webmin and Cloudmin collect data from users to see what features they are using and their setup?

Mabe if you don’t and there was a way to send this data anonymised with no sensitive stuff etc… this might be a useful thing to see what is used, what setup people have.

Easy to opt in and easy to opt out.

I certainly would not expect it of the GPL version!

But could expect it of the PRO version (after all they do have licence details) and so can see justifiable use.

They can do it if they ask and users agree, it might be very useful getting the data from GPL version.

I think most of it is covered in:

We try to collect as little user information as possible.

What I am saying, is why not collect more data if it is useful and if the user gives consent for it to help develop features.

Telemetry from live systems could be useful.

How exactly it would be useful?

Even though data collection might slightly benefit businesses, I believe it’s best to collect no data or only the absolute minimum required, as outlined in our Privacy Policy. These days, with so many companies misusing user data, protecting privacy and freedom is more important than ever. As an open-source project, we’re committed to doing just that.

  • Which features are used most?
  • What configurations do people use
  • I know you get OS information but maybe what packages people have installed

so a good exampe is that everyone is using Webmin Module A, but it lacks features? This might a be a good choice to upgrade or add features.

Everyone has phpmyadmin installed, so maybe as a Pro feature you could fully integrate it in to the Virtualmin GUI… :smile: (p.s. this is one I would like)

For me it would only be with explicit consent, nothing buried. This would be freedom of choise, but I do understand the issue of business misusing the data.

Just a survey then?

Maybe just push a survey via the dashboard asking people information. They could easily dismiss it and then not see it again.

Occasional messages to the GPL version about new features in the Pro version should also be ok.

I can see how this could be used to the advantage of ALL users.

Just knowing the number of GPL users against PRO users
for me there seems to be a load of very unused features that could be considered for a move into the PRO version or even could be considered abandoned/depreciated. (sure there might be one user still using it from a very earlier version but the clutter is a pain)

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I would guess that is roughly known, as at one point the virtualmin website was mentioning how many installs have been made, they know how many licences have been issued so deduct licences from installs gives you the spread between GPL & PRO.

is this webmin clutter or virtualmin clutter ?

mostly Webmin ie under un-used modules → un-used because no-one uses them? (or perhaps very few) some of which were quite possibly a good idea at the time but now rarely - if ever - used.

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Oddly I use the iptables module, as fail2ban bans using iptables, but I have firewalld installed on some servers which delegates the iptables modules to unused. Which modules do you class as redundant?

I don’t think @Stegan needs to do a list, I agree with him. There are modules I will never use. I think there is an ADSL one.

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Well you could just hide the list using some jquery in the themes extension js editor add this

$(document).ready(function() {
unused = $('a[href="#unused"]');
unused.hide();
});

no more offending list

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On the majority of my VM it is a long list. :frowning_face:

Thanks I will try that (I would prefer to be able to just list the ones I do need ie a list of the modules actually required/installed - or GUI list of tick boxes)

Again that is a personal choice. and an unknown. not really of much use to the development team in providing information on the use of particular modules or their continued relevance.

Well using the virtualmin installer all the required modules are added to their respective menus, if you go off roading and say install postgres & hit the refresh modules button postgres will appear in its correct menu position. but the unused modules module list does give you a list of all supported modules within webmin which if your thinking of installing it you will know that there is webmin support for it. if you do click on an unused module you get a screen like this

so it’s still back to the package manager to install it