I did a bit of digging last night.
Canonical can get some idea of usage, just not in the way people seem to think.
Mirror & telemetry data (aggregate, not per-user)
They can see things like:
IPs hitting mirrors
Package download volumes
Which releases are being pulled
Useful for trends and capacity planning, but itās not tied to individuals or licences.
Optional telemetry (since 18.04)
Thereās a one-off system report:
Hardware profile
Installed packages (high level)
Basic system config
You can opt out, and plenty do.
Ubuntu Pro (formerly Advantage)
This is the only place it gets closer to ācountingā:
Machines are attached to a subscription
So yes, they can see numbers there
But thatās about support entitlement, not policing updates.
andyc
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