Audacity Replacement

[TomForge]

After last summer's Audacity kerfuffle, has anyone got a line on an open source comparable that is in a trusted repository/hands? Any favorites and why?

Thanks in advance!

[t42]

Curently there is no issue with telemetry, at least for Linux version. I created new project today using latest official appImage 3.1.3 from here There were no attempts to sent or receive any packets through the network.

[TomForge]

Curently there is no issue with telemetry, at least for Linux version. I created new project today using latest official appImage 3.1.3 from here There were no attempts to sent or receive any packets through the network.

That makes me feel better, but I'm still in the market to move on. I got a feeling that Muse is taking one step back but intending to take two steps forward. I just want to deal with folks that I have a modicum of faith in.

In the meantime, if you don't mind, what tool did you use to check for telemetry? I've never tried to log or trace that stuff before, I guess it's time I upped my game. Thanks!

[t42]

what tool did you use to check for telemetry?

To analyze network traffic install Wireshark

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sudo apt install wireshark
sudo adduser your_user_name wireshark

Log out and log in to apply the changes.
Start Wireshark, select the curent network interface click Start icon on the toolbar to start the capture.

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man wireshark

[Pierre]

another choice is
https://www.ocenaudio.com/en/download
which is available for most platforms.

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

Audacity just connects to internet to:
- check for new versions,
- report errors.

This is under the control of user, and can be disabled in Audacity preferences.

No scandal, most of OpenSource programs, such as Firefox or LibreOffice do this...

Moreover, if you use the flatpak version, you can prevent the network access using flatseal (and Audacity will be updated automatically...).

All the "Audacity affair" has been grossly exaggerated, mainly on 4Chan forum.

However, if you still look for an Audacity replacement, have a look at Sneedacity, https://sneedacity.org/ or Tenacity, https://tenacityaudio.org/.

Regards,

MN

[TomForge]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions. From what I am seeing there's nothing out there that's fitting my prefs. Ocenaudio, can't tell if it's open source and when I can go open source to satisfy my software needs I do so. The other suggestions aren't being packaged yet, so this may be my first go at compiling from source.

I don't 4chan, I get my information from Linux YTers, then follow up with a couple of tech articles. Muse isn't planning on just collecting telemetry, if the reporting is to be believed. They plan to build business from the pieces of an ethical FOSS project that they killed. They are not good stewards respecting copy-left freedoms but profiteers off technicalities than they can get away with. Again, if the reporting is correct.

BTW not happy with Firefox and a lot of what Mozilla is doing. Not happy with the Mozilla - Mint partnership because Mint IIRC was proud to not be like Canonical trying to sneak in telemetry. I don't like Google, it's telemetry on steroids. And Mint partnered into Mozilla and Google? I'm not happy and a lot of other Mint fans aren't either. I hope the trend gets reversed. I much prefer partnership with DuckDuckGo and I pray that Mint forks Chromium, Brave, or even Firefox, or maybe partners with the upcoming DuckDuckGo browser in the future.

Gab forked Brave with a Dissenter browser, and I really liked it because you could comment on any web page, but they dropped it, it seems. Wish Mint would pick up that technology. I do like conversing with people that have different views, but a problem with Gab is that it has a lot of belligerent posters. I don't want aggressive or psycho accounts to be banned, but I think if you deploy a social media app, just have all account types, and all post types blocked. Then the user selects what sort of accounts to engage with. And of course, a user should be able to whitelist/blacklist others. But I hope the banning will stop. But I digress.

I'd much rather my search money goes to DDG and Mint than for Mozilla or Google to get any piece of it. You can show adds without spying on people. Please Mint return to that ideal. Maybe on the install ask the user which browser they want (if an online install) and then also if they would like the browser to be hardened for privacy. Then have an app that monitors your browser settings in case the browser developer changes something in an update. The spying on people needs to stop, there's no moral reason for the incessant intrusions. It's just greed and it needs to stop. Please Mint HELP US!

[Schultz]

The issue with Audacity didn't start till version 3. What version of Audacity do you have in the repo?

[phd21]

Hi TomForge,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

According to your link, the new maintainers of Audacity have not gone through with their plans to monitor usage or phone home so to speak.

My Audacity 3.0.2 is from their PPA, but there is a newer version available as an appimage.
- Download | Audacity ®
https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

FYI: Anyone can use the wonderful sandboxing application Firejail to limit any application from accessing the internet by changing the menu or desktop launcher or by adding or editing the Firejail profile for that application; just add the "firejail --net=none" to the launcher command.

Disable network access using firejail
https://www.brighteon.com/f09f693a-9847 ... f756cc3833



How to install current version of Firejail from their PPA:

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deki/firejail

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sudo apt-get update

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sudo apt-get install firejail firejail-profiles

Example to firejail an AppImage
firejail --appimage /opt/LibreOffice-fresh.basic-x86_64.AppImage

I was looking at the firejail audacity profile and "net none" is already part of it to prevent access to the Internet

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cat /etc/firejail/audacity.profile

*** After testing the commands below just now, I think there may be an issue with the current firejail audacity profile because I had to use the "--noprofile" firejail parameter for Audacity to come up and work. But, the commands below work to prevent internet network access and use a default sandox.

An installed version of Audacity create or edit a new menu item or desktop launcher using the command below

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firejail --noprofile --net=none audacity 

When I ran the above command then told audacity to check for updates, it launched a browser but could not access their update website.

I downloaded the current audacity appimage to my home folder applications folder where I put appimages and other self-contained applications.

To firejail it and prevent network (internet) access, you would put the location path of wherever your appimage is.

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firejail --net=none --noprofile --appimage /home/phd21/applications/audacity-linux-3.1.3-x86_64.AppImage

Hope this helps ...
.

Audacity AppImage firejailled to prevent internet network access.

[TomForge]

Hope this helps ...

Oh this is great information! I've really been -- for awhile now -- wanting to monitor and block apps from going out on the internet and between wireshark and firejail I think I'll be pretty much set for my Linux PCs. Next on my list will be a managed switch -- take that you data harvesters! Heh, heh.

But yeah I saw in the article that Muse has backed off, but that sounds like a Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA, tactical retreat only to keep pushing forward later in bits and pieces until they are even more invasive than they originally set out to be. That is speculation on my part, but if you look at all the issues that the article brings up. These guys have a clear intent and that intent is bending the spirit of freedom software and copy-left to their sole benefit and not the community. That's not FOSS, it's exploiting FOSS IMHO.

BTW I'm not a purist, I do believe that it's okay for browsers to push ads, and that its okay to charge for software. But that can be done without buying and selling your customer's data -- that crud needs to stop. Also, demonstrating an intent to convert FOSS into a data collection profit center is an invitation for me to jump over to a project that is more respectful of the labor of past and present contributors and more respectful of user's privacy.

I don't want to say much more, because I am not on the warpath and I do believe in redemption. Time will tell, I just don't trust a company that comes in and buys up a FOSS project and then acts this way.

[phd21]

Hi TomForge,

You are welcome.

Firejail not only provides sandboxing to prevent your system from being hurt by malware, it also has other features like being able to block an application's access to the Internet and networking.

Muse has other Linux apps as well. I don't think their intentions were malicious from what I have read, but people should have the option to choose whether or not they want to participate in information gathering.

[TomForge]

For the Audacity replacement -- Tenacity comes in the form of a flatpak so it's only two lines in the terminal to get up and going. See https://github.com/tenacityteam/tenacit ... /README.md

[onepiece]

Firstly, I still consider myself a NEWBIE to Linux, but a curious one with patchy LINUX knowledge. Regarding Audacity's telemetry:

1. Why can't the Linux built in Firewall -Gufw- be used to block all connections involving Audacity? Seems like everyone has a complex solution to block an Audacity internet connection . . . but no one has posted how to use the built in firewall. Not trying to pick a fight here, but creating a rule for a blocking a specific program is an easy task in Windows Firewall. What am I missing? If specific program blocking ability is a limitation of Gufw . . . where can I learn more to avoid believing in Gufw when it may fall short and leave me vulnerable? Should I get smarter on the "firejail" program if Gufw has major shortcomings?

2. I'm using LM 20.3 in VBox in Win 10 and Audacity Flatpak 3.1.3
AGAIN, I'm no expert, but I turned on FULL LOGGING in Gufw and I could not find any instance of Audacity phoning home in the Gufw log. Am I doing something wrong or did MUSE back off the telemetry?

Thanks to all.

[signer-ink-beast]

I don't think Linux's firewall capabilities with netfilter, the backbone of Linux firewall utilities, has the kind of granularity to block specific applications. Maybe that is different today if anything has changed compared to when I was trying to do something like that a few years ago on a different machine. But assuming that hasn't changed, your best bet would be to use firejail to disallow net connections for Audacity.

[TomForge]

Onepiece,

I don't know the answers to your questions but I'll be reading the responses.

I believe they did back off the telemetry, but I personally would rather use software from a source that hasn't squandered my trust.

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

I use Audacity 3.1.3 flatpak.

As a flatpak, this version does not look for updates.

The other connection possibilities are with help menu:
- when you look for help, you get a link to access the online help;
- and with help / diagnoses you can make a report to ask for support.

--> If you don't use any of this two help options, Audacity will not connect to internet.

Moreover, with flatseal (another flatpak app) you can control the permissions given to the flatpak apps, and you can prevent Audacity to access the network.

Regards,

MN

[onepiece]

Mike November,
Thank you for your thoughtful and complete reply. I KNOW I'll be able to put this info to use blocking connections I don't want. As mentioned, I'm a newbie so this is MOST helpful info.

Still curious tho . . . about built in gufw. Seems that it's value is very limited but I don't like saying that only because MY knowlege of its use is so limited. If there are any gufw experts out there, pls point us to a place where we can learn, use and appreciate gufw's value.

All the best and Cheers!