Quote: (04-13-2017 07:17 AM)Thrill Jackson Wrote:
I have heard some complaining about it around the web (particularly the amazon add on thats difficult to remove). Particularly for what we do (browse and post on a "hate speech" forum) would you consider it safe?
P.S: I'm in the U.S
Yes, Ubuntu planted a form of spyware. There was major uproar. That's a couple of years old news now. I think some stuff might have changed, but I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu to start off with for a noob. I wouldn't trust it after that debacle.
What you need to use is Linux Mint LTS (Long Term Support). Forget Ubuntu for now. Ditch it. Start again. It will save you much time and headache. See this review of the OS (operating system) you need to download the .iso of:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux...-xfce.html
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Conclusion
Seriously, Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa Xfce is a blistering good distribution. If not for the issues I had on my G60 laptop, I'd be one super-ultra-happy bunny. But my faith is being restored by the moment. First, a smooth, flawless upgrade from Rafaela. Then, this fabulous experience today.
Honestly, I can't think of anything bad except for a couple of tiny glitches, and they are so irrelevant in the overall scheme that there's nothing to worry or even consider. Everything worked. Everything. There were no warnings, errors, stutters, doubts. No matter what I tried, Rosa Xfce handled it gracefully, with speed and elegance. This warrants a perfect score. It's been a while, but we're back in the game. 10/10. Rosa Xfce, YOUR next distro.
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I also suggest that you use the XFCE edition. It's a much lighter desktop than the alternatives (cinammon, kde, mate). It's also the one I use and it is very light on resources if you have an older computer - very windows like as well. This is a perfect distro for a noob as it will not just stop working in a year's time. You get a few years out of this one!
Also, don't worry about the spying NSA stuff. We are all fucked. I've been going through the exploits in the Wikileaks Vault releases and there is a lot of compromised Linux stuff. Trust no one and no thing. I don't know enough about Linux to make a quick judgement about it, but on first look, I just assume it is all fucked, so we won't worry about that for now. Nothing is safe. Every single fucking thing has been poisoned.
This is actually based on Ubuntu as you can see. Read the release notes for any 'gotcha's' for your particular hardware. Might save headaches later. Also I would highly recommend you you do a hash check of the downloaded file before you start using it (a slightly corrupted iso can wreak havoc and be hard to diagnose). It's hassle but worth it. You don't need to do this if you just want to play about for now. But for a serious OS it's pretty much essential.
Get the linux distro here:
https://www.linuxmint.com/release.php?id=26
You want the ones at the very bottom - select whichever CPU type you have (32-bit or 64-bit) - this is important! You will be selecting the XFCE edition as I said - it's lighter on resources and less shit to deal with later - it's tried and trusted and I'm sure you will love it.
If you don't know how to do a hash check, let me know. It's not hard.