> Is it normal for remote shells to have telemetry?

Well, tools that you wouldn't expect to phone home like text editors and compilers now do. See VSCode, the .NET Core compiler and even the Windows 10 calculator [0].

[0]: https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator/issues/148

Yes, on the front page of HN right now is a post about Atom phoning home.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21642391

Does Microsoft collect the calculations themselves, or metadata related to it's use?

I guess it is the reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial

Although in our times it won't even be that surprising if remote shells started phoning home...

This website is for high quality discussion, not low effort pop culture references.

I personally found that to be a high quality joke. I mean, this isn't Reddit, but I wouldn't stick around a website too long if it were genuinely all business, zero fun.

Wow, climb on down buddy. E.T. the movie is even referenced on Eternal Terminal's site. https://eternalterminal.dev/howitworks/#the-eternal-terminal...

You remind me of the main character's wife from Breaking Bad, what's her name, oh yeah Skyler.

Sick pop culture reference!~

And yet, I'm not sure I would call the majority of discussion on this website "high quality".

While this was a joke, I am concerned about terminal utils having (opt-out) telemetry. It seems to have spread recently. For example, Homebrew, .NET core, ...

Maybe he’s not that smart. Maybe he’s like a worker bee who only knows how to push buttons or something