tlarkin
VIP Member
Linux is over-rated. Switched back to WinXP and happy about it.
With Ubuntu, I noticed that every night around 8PM, I get these massive downloads of +200MB out of thin air, even though I am not using the internet at that time... Want to secretly steal my CPU power crunching downloaded (astronomy, or w/e conspiracy) data from NASA/the government eh?
Uh what? You probably had auto update for your packages, which can be cleaned up after you update them. You just have to know how to do it. Also, what does it matter to you if he wants to learn a new OS or play with Linux? I don't see why people feel the need to always but in with their opinions like that.
Also, I wouldn't worry about any tracking software with Linux, in fact I would be worried about DRM in windows, and all the freaking stuff it does to track what you do and what you install. Of course it isn't the government that has that information, it is Microsoft, but I bet the government could probably get it if they really wanted to. It would just take forever in court, but via the Patriot Act, all they would have to do is link it somehow vaguely to terrorism, and problem solved.
However, you do have a point, which is why I strongly recommed all Linux newbies start off with a virtual machine. That way they don't have to mess with their hard drives, partitions, swap, etc, they can just delete the virtual machine if it goes crazy or when they no longer want to use it. Then they don't mess up their windows installation either. It is a good way to try before you buy so to speak, except you aren't buying Linux. Unless, you buy one of the enterprise versions of it of course.