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I'm a new Ubuntu user who's not super savvy but am considerinng moving to another distro due to these malware issues. Which distro would you recommend I move to

I'm a new Ubuntu user who's not super savvy but am considerinng moving to another distro due to these malware issues. Which distro would you recommend I move to? Mint?

wfn 13y ago
Depends, I guess. I'd check out Debian and maybe, yes, Mint. The thing to realize is that you can use any kind of desktop environment on any of the main distros. With Ubuntu, moving from its default DE can sometimes result in certain hiccups. Other distros are more DE-modular; that's the feeling I get when working on a Debian desktop, at least. Overall, Debian is a very user-friendly system (or rather, it exposes the same kinds of interfaces as Ubuntu does, once the leaky UI abstractions in Ubuntu do start leaking. ;)
ewzimm 13y ago
Ubuntu GNOME
zachlatta 13y ago
I highly, highly recommend Linux Mint (with Cinnamon) to those looking for an Ubuntu alternative. Cinnamon is a great desktop environment and Mint, in many ways, is Ubuntu without the privacy issues.
- sampo 13y ago
  As far as I have understood, the default way to upgrade the distro in Mint is to reinstall the whole OS? Feels a bit primitive to me. You're fine for a year or so, but when a new version of Mint comes, if you want to upgrade, you'd need to reinstall everything.
  - zachlatta 13y ago
    I'm not entirely sure how the upgrade process works in Mint. I think of it as a "transition" distro in many ways. Most of the people I've recommended it to moved on to Crunchbang or similar after a few months of use.
- consider_this 13y ago
  How about Mint search? http://www.linuxmint.com/searchengines.php http://www.linuxmint.com/searchengines.php
sampo 13y ago
The easiest thing would be to just turn off the internet search option from the dash, or maybe uninstall the Amazon lens (but maybe there are other similar lenses...). Or change from Unity to another Desktop Environment (Gnome, Xfce, KDE, Cinnamon or whatever). Unless you want to make a statement, then changing the distro might be the gesture you want.
- hkmurakami 13y ago
  oh good to know that as a Gnome user, I'm at least minimally "in the clear". Thanks! (I thought the malware component might be in a lower level of the OS than the DE)
dombili 13y ago
elementary OS.
mintplant 13y ago
sudo aptitude remove unity-lens-shopping Don't be fooled by the FUD. It's easy to turn off and not that big a deal, but people who are already biased against Ubuntu like to use this to try to scare folks away.
- zachlatta 13y ago
  Yup, it's easy to remove that specific functionality. But let's think of the big picture. The introduction of this privacy-violating functionality signifies the direction of Ubuntu as a whole.
dylz 13y ago
I've seen http://elementaryos.org/ http://elementaryos.org/ being paraded around a bit, no experiecnce with it tho

I'm a new Ubuntu user who's not super savvy but am considerinng moving to another distro due to these malware issues. Which distro would you recommend I move to? Mint?

wfn 13y ago

Depends, I guess. I'd check out Debian and maybe, yes, Mint. The thing to realize is that you can use any kind of desktop environment on any of the main distros. With Ubuntu, moving from its default DE can sometimes result in certain hiccups. Other distros are more DE-modular; that's the feeling I get when working on a Debian desktop, at least. Overall, Debian is a very user-friendly system (or rather, it exposes the same kinds of interfaces as Ubuntu does, once the leaky UI abstractions in Ubuntu do start leaking. ;)

ewzimm 13y ago

Ubuntu GNOME

zachlatta 13y ago

I highly, highly recommend Linux Mint (with Cinnamon) to those looking for an Ubuntu alternative. Cinnamon is a great desktop environment and Mint, in many ways, is Ubuntu without the privacy issues.

sampo 13y ago
As far as I have understood, the default way to upgrade the distro in Mint is to reinstall the whole OS? Feels a bit primitive to me. You're fine for a year or so, but when a new version of Mint comes, if you want to upgrade, you'd need to reinstall everything.
- zachlatta 13y ago
  I'm not entirely sure how the upgrade process works in Mint. I think of it as a "transition" distro in many ways. Most of the people I've recommended it to moved on to Crunchbang or similar after a few months of use.
consider_this 13y ago
How about Mint search? http://www.linuxmint.com/searchengines.php http://www.linuxmint.com/searchengines.php

sampo 13y ago

The easiest thing would be to just turn off the internet search option from the dash, or maybe uninstall the Amazon lens (but maybe there are other similar lenses...). Or change from Unity to another Desktop Environment (Gnome, Xfce, KDE, Cinnamon or whatever). Unless you want to make a statement, then changing the distro might be the gesture you want.

hkmurakami 13y ago
oh good to know that as a Gnome user, I'm at least minimally "in the clear". Thanks! (I thought the malware component might be in a lower level of the OS than the DE)

dombili 13y ago

elementary OS.

mintplant 13y ago

sudo aptitude remove unity-lens-shopping Don't be fooled by the FUD. It's easy to turn off and not that big a deal, but people who are already biased against Ubuntu like to use this to try to scare folks away.

zachlatta 13y ago
Yup, it's easy to remove that specific functionality. But let's think of the big picture. The introduction of this privacy-violating functionality signifies the direction of Ubuntu as a whole.

dylz 13y ago

I've seen http://elementaryos.org/ http://elementaryos.org/ being paraded around a bit, no experiecnce with it tho