Comment 18 for bug 1950692

I'm afraid I have to agree with the other users here, having just run an update cycle on various 22.04.1 LTS boxen and seen all sorts of so-called ubuntu-advantage-* applications scroll by.

I do strongly disagree with Steve Langasek (vorlon) who wrote on 2022-06-03:
"But secondly, as I've commented before, the purpose of ubuntu-advantage-tools inclusion in ubuntu-minimal isn't to advertise commercial services;"

This is rather surprising since I can not come to any other conclusion than that the Ubuntu Pro service is a commercial one (https://ubuntu.com/pro), and the only genuine dependency for ubuntu-advantage-* seems to be this commercial Canonical service.
Now, one could argue that the current configuration does not force the user to use Ubuntu Pro, and does not present a deliberate lock-in situation (yet), forcing the user to make certain choices preferable only to Canonical (as before with Amazon, snap).

One could also conclude that the stringent definition of non-essential dependencies is an action we are familiar with from other non-open operating systems, but, more importantly, might go against the open software nature and licenses linux systems are based on. As are, as someone else here remarked, the distros that are Ubuntu based, and who might need to reconsider their situation and options. As some already have strongly (Mint).

I personally am most likely not the person to have this discussion. As many users, I will act reluctantly when annoyance becomes too great, or interference becomes too crippling, putting the Ubuntu used, freely available FOSS together myself as I think Canonical should have done. Having said this however, I also think Canonicals brand (if we are talking commercial anyway) might benefit from open, honest, and correct communication with their users/ customers. Something that their corporate brand seems to have lost already with similar incidents previously...