[mythtv-users] What are these connections?

[Keith Pyle]

On 11/09/17 06:00, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> On Wed, 8 Nov 2017 22:19:23 +1100, Eyal wrote:
>> I would rather that the themes come with the package and not updated separately. I also am
>> uncomfortable with any calls home.
>>
>> Anyone knows why it is done this way?
>>
>> TIA
>
> If you are really set on preventing it from connecting to the themes
> server, then the simple way to prevent it is to put a rule in your
> router's firewall to block that connection.  But it is really not
> something to worry about - all it is getting is the list of themes and
> their descriptions.  It does not send any information to the server,
> it just gets the current theme data.  You have to actually select a
> theme in the Theme Chooser menu before it will download a theme.
>
> I expect that the main reason for doing it this way is so that you can
> see the visual styles of all the themes when you are selecting one. If
> the themes were in packages, you would need to hunt down all the theme
> packages and probably install them before you could find out how they
> look.  That would not work well and most people would never bother to
> change from the default theme, and would be missing out on using a
> theme that suits them better.
> ...
I disagree that the user should have to first identify a 'call out' like
this and then actively block it through an external capability.  Any
external dependency should be an opt-in that is clearly called out in
user settable options.  If a disabled option limits the delivered
functionality, the user can choose.

Keith