Well I suggest that you just unplug your computer from your router/modem and then unplug the power source. You will never be happy, and honestly I believe that you are doing something that you shouldn't be doing in the first place due to the line of questions and level of paranoia that you very obviously are displaying here.
Here's a solution to the spying that Ubuntu does: Don't use Ubuntu. There are so many better distros out there; better by light years, like Fedora, openSUSE, Debian, Arch, and the list goes on. Sometimes software people need doesn't exist in one distribution's repositories, but can be found in another distro's repos. Your average Joe isn't going to understand how to build software from source, even though that's always an option for the more advanced users. Not only is the default interface in Ubuntu called Unity hideously ugly and clunky, but there's nothing special about Ubuntu. I like the Windows 10 interface better than Unity's, and even that's ugly to me. All Unbuntu is is a ripoff of Debian. When so many distros are pooling their resources together working on Wayland to once and for all bury the deprecated Xorg, Ubuntu went off in their own direction to create Mir. That made no sense to the majority of the Linux community. Ubuntu for the most part doesn't give back much of anything to the open source community. They just take source code other people have developed, change the color scheme to an ugly orange, add spy features and repackage it. A couple bright spots about Ubuntu is that overall, it was a good thing for the Linux community as a whole. Ubuntu brought the idea of Linux to the average consumer who had no idea what Linux even was. It took someone like Mark Shuttleworth that sold Thawte for $575,000,000 to put some money behind the idea of "Linux on the desktop". I think a lot of people thought Ubuntu was going to be a serious competitor to Windows, but that hasn't happened. GNU/Linux remains to be the redheaded step-child operating system when we're speaking of desktop operating systems, and there are reasons why this is. Here are some of them: Licensing issues Constant argumentation about rejecting or embracing closed source software titles (this doesn't help the normal consumer) Fragmentation in the Linux community Hardware compatibility problems in isolated scenarios (although this has gotten much better) Linux doesn't normally come pre-installed on computers The desktop is in decline; there's less of an interest in which desktop OS is best Business software frequently has been specifically developed for the Windows platform only (custom applications) Businesses frequently use legacy software that was developed for Windows 15-20 years ago; too expensive to change platforms and deal with the headaches People don't like change, and don't want to re-learn an entirely new OS Open source software doesn't fill the gap when comparing name brands like Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Audition, etc. Security improvements over Windows don't matter to regular users; all regular consumers want is something just good enough that "just works" Barely any marketing of any Linux distribution for home use Lack of games available for Linux With all the spying concerns surrounding Windows 10 and the obvious nefarious direction Microsoft is headed in, Linux does indeed have a huge chance of getting more popularized on the desktop, just like Android took the smartphone market by storm. Android is 100% running on Linux. Linux is super successful everywhere but the desktop. Servers, supercomputers, in the embedded space, you name it. It will take a company like Google to get Linux popular on the desktop, which is akin to what they're doing with the Chromebook. Apply that ideology, extrapolate it, and think of that in the sense of Android running on the desktop. Mark Shuttleworth isn't the man that made it happen; he tried and failed.
I agree. I believe that there is only 3 distros around. (Honestly 2 since Debian adopted systemd) Slackware, RedHat and Debian. Everything else is just a fork or branch (same distro, different customizations) with a different wrapper. There are a few independent distros, Void is one worth mention, but nothing really special there either.
Ubuntu has the most up to date drivers and software compatibility, without needing to "build software from source" or spend extended time on terminal. I looked up Debian, the mother of Ubuntu and Mint, it has components grossly out of date, up to 10 years. There is no way I am attempting to do my own updates on user unfriendly Debian. Most of us have absolutely no interest in becoming an advanced user of a text based OS. We change to Linux to avoid spying, not to "learn and improve our knowledge". What satisfaction is there in spending hours to do what Ubuntu already gives on a plate. Time is money. To us, Ubuntu is perfect. But only after we strip it of the spyware. Here's a example. I installed Mint, it did not have the most up to date video driver. I followed some guide on updating the driver. It failed, some x server error. I found another guide. It failed, this time kernal mismatch. Only way to rescue was a system restore. I installed Ubuntu to test, it had the most up to date video driver, without messing around. The chance of failure when following some guide on terminal commands to achieve a result, is high, 50%. The less messing around and customizing on Linux is better. Agreed Ubuntu interface is rather unattractive. This is secondary to me and others drawn to this thread by the topic: the OS with the most privacy and useability combined. You admit there is spyware on Ubuntu, good, unlike "hearywarlot" above falsely claiming Ubuntu's zeitgeist does not spy. It is dangerous to say there is no spying when there is. My warning to beginners of linux is to use Ubuntu, after stripping it of spyware.
Hmm, lets see. Microsoft Windows = Corporate OS. Ubuntu = Corporate OS. Corporate OS = revenue needed to operate corporation. So in the end you are leaving one corporate sponsored OS for another one???? This makes absolutely zero sense to me. You want to leave one revenue generated entity for another. I seriously think that you just need to unplug your computer, smartphone and any other IoT devices and leave it all alone due to the paranoia that you are displaying on these forums.
Critical security updates are backported to older packages, so you get the best of both worlds. For instance, a Debian server I help manage is running version 3.2.0 of the Linux kernel and when there are security updates we get them. New software can have vulnerabilities in it that haven't been found yet, so there is really nothing to worry about if you are using Debian with its default repos. Debian is pretty much bullet proof (not that SUSE/Fedora aren't also); that is why all these other distributions forked it and created their own. You are right about Google search results frequently giving results pointing to Ubuntu forums and the like, but once you get a basis for Linux and are over the beginner's phase, you can take questions and answers from those forums and apply them to any Linux distribution. If you're using Ubuntu, you're better off than Windows. That much is true. The spying functionality in Ubuntu can easily be turned off, but its the principal that matters and which I'm against. Strong principals is what has given computer users the computing freedom they deserve and has allowed them not to be slaves to a horrible and dishonest company like Microsoft.
You have convinced me, if security updates are backported to Debian it must be as secure as the more popular distros Ubuntu or Mint. I shall give Debian live dvd a go, if it recognizes my video card I am going for the full install. The default spying in Ubuntu is of concern, in future they may try something sneaky again. Mint has a firefox extension innocently called "Search Enhancer", operating as a revenue source for the maker, not sure if it is a mini-spy. With Debian, there are no spying elements at all, I hope!
Corporate OS = full time staff = fix vulnerabilities faster = better security. That is what I thought. People tweaking the Ubuntu spyware off analyzed their traffic, found no more phoning home. I can't live without technology and neither can anyone here, you can stop suggesting unplugging computer. I came here to find a useful solution to privacy, not a stupid solution. You wondered why I was "paranoid", you will never know why, that is the beauty of privacy, I give information to people I want to (and who deserve it) rather than have the choice taken away from me. Seeing how you write you come off as someone judgmental and borderline troll, the typical "if you are hiding you must be doing something wrong". So I am telling you nothing.
Geez, I can't believe the paranoia, so advertising garnering is spyware? What exactly are they spying on? - unlike M$ that are hugely over funded, Ubuntu requires some revenue - in true Linux tradition it's open and honest about it's activities.. Consider this: using an adblocker on this very site - how does that help MDL? You are just a stat that helps generate income... Lets not be selfish for no apparent reason.
Tried Debian, no graphics driver. Not going to try manual driver install after failing miserably previously with x server errors and kernal mismatches. Ubuntu and Mint are still where it's at for beginners to linux. Shame the non-spy edition of Ubuntu 16.04 is 7 months away.
How am i false? Ok if you mean spyware by collecting, Zeitgeist does collect information (actually applications you use send data to Zeitgeist) and centralizes it into a database so applications can easily have access to this, which also makes cleaning or controlling recent history easier. But this is never sent over the network, only the user owning that database or system admin will see it. If not centralized though, you get this problem where you need something like CCleaner/Bleachbit and recent files scattered and not shared between programs and you still have recently-used.xbel (why not just one database then). Ofcourse centralizing this info makes spying by a unknown intruder/hacker easier, but once a unknown intruder/hacker has access, your in trouble anyway. If you do not want or need it for privacy or performance concerns, you can disable or lessen logging from 'System Settings' > 'Security & Privacy' > 'Files & Applications' > 'Record file and application usage'. Code: omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/is-zeitgeist-spying-on-you Unfortunantly though removing Zeitgeist in Gnome 3/Unity is no option since integration is to deep. A alternative would be to use Cinnamon (Gnome 3 fork), KDE, Xfce or anything else which does not depend deeply on Zeitgeist.
To calm everyone's spirits, we should all give Bonobo's "Solid Steel Presents Bonobo: It Came From the Sea" album a listen