Linux Privacy: Advice on Efficiency, Security & Convenience

[EngWiPy]

I just watched a video to Richard Stallman (you can find it here), in which he says that Ubuntu violates the freedom principle of the Gunu/Linux project, by sending the searches you make on your computer to canonical (I think it is the source of Ubuntu or something), and it includes Amazon products and ads (I see there is an icon to Amazon by default in Ubutnu). I am still new to the Linux system, and have Ubuntu as my distribution, as I figured it is commonly used, and well supported. I do believe that what we do in the digital world is not private and our lives are recorded somewhere for someone to look it up. I think Linux has been trying to stop this. Could anyone comment on this, and give me more advice regarding the Linux system and the distributions in terms of efficiency, security, convenience, ...

 

[jedishrfu]

Ubuntu stopped the practice of sharing search results with third parties like amazon. You can search for articles online about the controversy.

Just remember there’s no free lunch.

 

[fluidistic]

Ubuntu uses proprietary softwares, which goes against Stallman's Free Software Foundation (FSF)'s philosophy. This foundation holds the name of several GNU/Linux distributions that satisfy the criteria of free software, according to the FSF. And similarly for softwares.

 

[EngWiPy]

...This foundation holds the name of several GNU/Linux distributions that satisfy the criteria of free software, according to the FSF...

Could you give some examples? Is Debian one of them?

 

[fluidistic]

Have a look at https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html. I know several people who use Parabola (it's based on Arch Linux, a poplar distro). Debian is not one of them. Here's what Stallman wrote about Debian:

Debian's Social Contract states the goal of making Debian entirely free software, and Debian conscientiously keeps nonfree software out of the official Debian system. However, Debian also provides a repository of nonfree software. According to the project, this software is “not part of the Debian system,” but the repository is hosted on many of the project's main servers, and people can readily find these nonfree packages by browsing Debian's online package database and its wiki.

There is also a “contrib” repository; its packages are free, but some of them exist to load separately distributed proprietary programs. This too is not thoroughly separated from the main Debian distribution.

Previous releases of Debian included nonfree blobs with Linux, the kernel. With the release of Debian 6.0 (“squeeze”) in February 2011, these blobs have been moved out of the main distribution to separate packages in the nonfree repository. However, the problem partly remains: the installer in some cases recommends these nonfree firmware files for the peripherals on the machine.

Debian's wiki includes pages about installing nonfree firmware.