Best advice: Don't use anything with the Ubuntu kernel. Trust me there are plenty of easy to use linux distro's out there and they don't spy on you.
Personally I advise every ubuntu user I come across to switch to Fedora. It's easy to use, can be installed with a variety of desktop choices (MATE, XFCE, Cinnamon, etc.) and it's hard to destroy it completely where as in Ubuntu (12.01) all I had to do was try to install Gnome 2. 🤣

Hm, I had heard about that Ubuntu/Amazon thing, is that what you're talking about? I'm actually a Mint user. I tried Ubuntu once, thought it was beatiful, but it gave me a purple screen of death after a single day of use. Do you think Mint has a spy backdoor or something?

I guess it would be fair to give Fedora a whirl. What I like about Mint is that it's relatively easy and it can use Ubuntu's shitload of repos and PPAs. How does Fedora compare? Being able to run Cinnamon is sure nice!

Nice spectrumesque pic, btw!

Yeah the amazon thing was partially what I mean but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that right in the contract it says by installing ubuntu you allow canonical to collect data from your system or something like that. Unfortunately I no longer remember where it was I read that.
The thing is Canonical is pretty freaking awful, there systems are buggy and well, I wouldn't want to use anything based off of their kernel. Especially since there kernel is based off of debian and there happens to be a debian version of Mint.
Also there is no real upgrade path for linux mint, if you want to jump up to the next version you have to reinstall the whole OS from what I saw when I was using it. Which in my mind tells me that people are probably behind in the updates and therefore less secure.

Unfortunately fedora does not have as many repos available but they are always getting more, also due to the fact that fedora takes the whole "free as in freedom" thing seriously there is no Steam, VLC or libdvdcss available in the repos.

However you can get still install these with only a little extra work. All you have to do is add the RPMFusion repositories which is really easy via their installer. You don't even have to edit any files manually and it's completely safe.

Here are the links:
RPMFusion_Free repos
http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rp … e-20.noarch.rpm

Non-free
http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora … e-20.noarch.rpm

Then all you have to do is type steam or vlc into the graphical installer and it should pull up results. 😀

Also for conveiniance and ease of use I would use the Full DVD to install from. It's larger and takes time to download but it's worth it since you can easily pick what desktop you want to use and other software options from a nice graphical installer.

32bit http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/ … 20-i386-DVD.iso
64bit http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/ … -x86_64-DVD.iso

Hopefully this helps you out, I love fedora and I hope you'll like it too. It seems pretty out of the spotlight for some reason, I guess the devs don't really advertise it.

Also thanks I made the pic myself one day after looking at some neat 4 colour cga style pixel art. 🤣

The reason I don't try the Debian Mint is the same why I never tried Fedora: it seems a bit tough. It's like, I can write a script now and then, but I like it easy, and more than that, I feel like I should be a scout for the masses, just a bit ahead, but still one of them. But I found out about Korora, and not only it seems pretty cool, but it did a pretty good job convincing me of Fedora's awesomeness.

I actually like the "reinstall the whole OS" thing, to start fresh every few years. I keep most files in a separate partition anyway. And a Long Term Support edition of Ubuntu receives security updates for five years. But Mint, by default, doesn't install security updates if they risk stability.

Under Ubuntu/Mint, I often have options, for example, A, B and C, But I have the impression that the Fedora folks are more focused on making A work in the first place. Just an impression.

I didn't know VLC was non-free... or do you mean non-free in the US? Cause you people have the meanest IP laws...

Anyway, just installed this version of Mint, so I'm sticking with it for a while. But when the time comes to change diapers, I'll certainly give Korora a try! Thank you!

Yeah I'm not sure why VLC is not in the repos by default since it is open source (thats what I mean by free).

I would have to disagree with you about choices, fedora comes in many different flavors (known as spins), but one thing common to them all is the fact that they are all made to work and work well.

Tbh I'd never even heard of Korora, I just use straight Fedora. If you can use DOS you can use linux it really is just as simple if not more so.

Oh, by choices, I didn't mean flavors, I noticed those. I mean software in general, any eventual niche needs. Can't think of a particularly good example though.

I'm not particularly afraid of the command line, but a bit lazy/scared of compiling things. I could learn that, if I really had to, sure, I even compiled games in some easy cases, but I can't tell everyone to do that. I can recommend Mint to almost anyone, though.

But I guess I'm speculating here, I'd really have to try it to see if it would satisfy my needs.

To be truthful I have never compiled a program on linux, I've never had to. I've also never written any scripts to do things in linux once again because I've never had to.

All I'm saying is give it a try, too many people listen to the mac and windows fanboys and assume using linux is over their head when in fact that really isn't the case.