Ive had a Linux marathon on YouTube today. First I was looking at some old Linux conferences and then somehow I got into Richard stallman stuff. I've to admit, I'd kinda missed him some how. Don't know how.. Nothing new for me, but still interesting to listening to. I've heard his name got namedropped here before on level1(and/or teksyndicate).
My first question is, regarding Ubuntu, how bad is it? The spionsoftwarething and how about Linux mint, being a Ubuntu distribution.. [EDIT i got corrected here by @judahnator , I thought that mint was built on Ubuntu.] That I've been using for almost 2 years now. Finally made the switch thanks to teksyndicate! (wendell/logan) :D
In one of the q and a's, they talked a bit about an awkward panel they had a few years ago , were they had a discussion(war) about systemd...
3-4 videos later on that subject(and ofc that awkward panel debate(linked it above))... I learned alot, so that was good thing! Then a video suggestion came up on YouTube:
Its a bit of, imo, but hey, its a good conspiracy hehe :p Systemd coming from Redhat, that is founding by fbi.. Kinda forced into every distribution.. Without even had used it, it sound pretty good to me. I can see the negative points coming from the sysadmins(kinda, though I'm not one my self)
I was thinking about switching to manjaro, I feel its the right next step in my Linux life. I bet I can surf the Webb, write c++ and install steam without any problems? Any tips or comments would be nice!
PS sorry if the thread wasn't that good written. I wrote it on my mobile and English is not my native language.
Okay. Thanks for the info! I've always thought it was built up on Ubuntu. Yea, back when, it stood between Ubuntu vs mint. I did go with mint in the end. I don't think I was clear about what I meant. My concern was how bad Ubuntu/mint was regarding the privacy.(and also, if manjaro is better or worse in that area) Thanks!
First thing is I don't like ubuntu. If a package is missing its a huge pain in the dick to get it inserted. On top of all of that I am one of those weirdos that wants the most updated system possible. So, I'll often point to manjaro or antergos now.
Past that, I always recommend OpenRC over systemd if anyone has any concerns with it. RC is faster so often I would rather go for that, especially if its on an older system.
Ubuntu had at one point enabled tracking in Unity and integrated Amazon shopping (ads) straight on the desktop, and that was on Unity only. But due to an outrage they quickly removed it so it's not an issue anymore.
No. Prolly the only thing that relates to tracking is that Gnome might offer location services and some DE's offer automatic bug reporting. Still can be switched off, altho bug reports are generally nice to inform about.
I remember when one of the big arguments against systemd was that people didnt need a faster init system so didnt need systemd lol.
On first install (on Fedora at least), GNOME asks you about setting up these features including linking online accounts, and gives you the options to turn off bug reporting and location services.
Bit silly isn't it? The conspiracy video i though was a joke? I assume. The majority of the videos argument applies to the kernel, but he dismissed that for an arbitrary reason. Oh well.
Btw, Red Hat is one of the largest Linux companies out there, has large contracts with governments just like the video says. But not because its in the govs pockets. they provide a service they need, it works. Its that or CentOS, and govs want support.
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I've said this a few times in other threads. Look deeper than the surface of a distro. Security should be a big thing, most distros don't give much in the way of security except for basic CVE monitoring.
Yea I agree with you, on that video! Don't think(I hope not) ppl will take that conspiring video to seriously. I thought his comments on 'C' was funnie :D feelt like he almost dismissed the c languages hehe
PS "no we don't need/want a faster init.." killer argument lol
Ubuntu isn't bad per say, it just doesn't like to be messed with. I personally update my kernel when a new one major one is released for new features, Ubuntu generally doesn't like this and tries to challenge me by breaking my graphics stack. The spying thing is off by default now, but it was always removable in settings, a good alternative is using Ubuntu MATE, I cant remember exactly how to do this but you can change it to make it look like Ubuntu.
Personally I don't listen to Stallman, he really does my head in, I agree open source software is great but he sometimes outright abuses distributions because there not full libre, for example Debian is not allowed on the list because of its allowance of some none-free software, yet trisquel decided to be based upon Ubuntu instead of Debian with a libre kernel, anyways I digress.
And good choice on distro, personally I never got on with Manjaro, but it does give you easy access to a slightly more stable arch linux, in my opinion one of the most powerful distros going with its easy access to software (I cant be bothered to compile programs all the time).
Mint is and has been based on Ubuntu for quite a long time and it uses both Mint and Ubuntu repositories. However, Mint does also offer a separate distro aptly named the Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), which surprisingly, is based on Debian.
The spying fiasco was a search facility. If one entered a search term, not only would Ubuntu search the local hard drive, but it would also search the Internet, at places like Amazon.com. This feature was enabled by default and it was deemed by users to be a leakage of personal information. Subsequent versions of Ubuntu retained this search feature, however it was disabled by default.
The architecture of Unix and subsequently its cousin Linux, were built on the principle that programs should be small, have a limited scope and do one thing really well. This was done out of necessity at the time that Unix was being written, because at that time the largest, most expensive main frame computers were lucky to have 64k of RAM. These small programs could then be linked together by means of the concept of the pipe, whereby the output of one program could be inserted as the input of a second program. In this way a few small programs could be linked together to create the needed functionality.
Systemd, on the other hand, is a huge monolithic program, that manages the booting, running and shutting down of the PC, which is contrary to the "Unix way" established over the past 40+ years. Even though systemd can boot a machine in literally just a few seconds, grizzled neck-beards declared that this benefit did not outweigh the blasphemy.
SELinux I hear you say? NSA built originally lol. But I do agree with you, security on a lot of distros these days is just meh at best, I like the approach systems like Solus are taking starting at the compiling and going all the way to the repos with multiple checksums, HTTPS everywhere etc. I have to say I think GRSec/PAX should be in the kernel by default and then if possible build a easy GUI for it, One thing I hate about Fedora is SELinux (I havent had time to actually learn it) but I don't want to turn it off.