I downloaded Ubuntu 14.04 last night and installed it today. What a wonderful improvement over 12.04. Overall the newly added features are a welcome sight to see. And I'm glad the latest versions of Firefox and LibreOffice are included. Bravo to the Linux community for bringing such a polished, responsive and improved version of this LTS edition to the public. I dumped Windows 7 on my desktop for 12.04.4, and now I'm pleased to replace 12.04.4 with this latest release of Ubuntu. There are two downfalls to this release that I do not agree with, but I understand why they were added. The first is the Amazon launcher on the left side of the panel. By default, that should have never been included. But since Amazon is supporting Canonical Ltd. and it is easy to remove, it isn't a big deal to me as long as Ubuntu continues to get supported. The other thing, which is turned on by default when it should have been off (in my opinion), is the online Search setting for Amazon to do targeted advertisements on Ubuntu users. This spyware feature is intrusive to those that don't disable it. Once again, I understand why it was added, and I hope the extra income helps Canonical, but I wish it was off by default. Thank you, Canonical! You've all done a great job at making Ubuntu even more amazing. I'm really enjoying 14.04.
Wow Skaendon, do you usually post old news? After 12.04, Ubuntu added spyware features to Ubuntu using Amazon as it's source of revenue. The spyware is on by default but it can be turned off. Please provide a link of how Canonical "works directly with Microsoft", because this is the first time I've heard about it. Why are you surprised that Conical is trying to subsidize itself through targeted advertisements when they have bills to pay like everyone else? Is it really so laughable, or are you just ignorant?
I have no problem with a company making money with a Linux distro that they created. The traditional way to make money in the Linux community (RedHat, Caldera and very few others excluded) is offering support, creating fixes or code for a certain distro, or just Linux in general. I have a problem with them making money from collecting info (possibly personal) in a sketchy way and then selling it to other companies. For me, once you wear the brand of practicing sketchy methods of doing business, it is hard for me to forget something like that and it takes a hell of a lot to get any kind of trust back in them.