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Ubuntu Pro is a subscription service that requires creating a user account with Canonical, even for personal use. It also requires use of a service called Ubuntu Pro Client installed on the computer. It’s their version of how Microsoft would like every Windows user to use a Microsoft account. The bolded part below is interesting (from: https://ubuntu.com/legal/ubuntu-pro/personal)
6. Personal data
So that we can provide the Service to you, you will be required to provide information about yourself such as your name and email address. Any such information you provide to Canonical must always be accurate, correct and up to date and in compliance with these Terms of Service.
Our Single Sign On Privacy Notice and Privacy Policy explain how we treat your personal data and protect your privacy when using these Services. In addition, if you use the Service for more than the entitled number of physical or virtual Ubuntu systems Canonical may contact you directly, using the SSO account details provided, to discuss ongoing maintenance and support requirements.
We may also collect certain non-personally-identifiable information, which is located on your computer. The information collected may include statistics relating to how often data is transferred, and performance metrics in relation to software and configuration. You agree this information may be retained and used by Canonical.
Canonical may disclose any or all personal data and content you have sent, posted or published if required to comply with applicable law or the order or requirement of a court, administrative agency or other governmental body. All other use of your personal data is subject to the Privacy Policy.
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It may be a difference in Linux Mint versions, I’m using 21.2. Try using set-hostname instead.
hostnamectl set-hostname Merlin
Also to see all options for the version installed on your system: hostnamectl –help (that is two dashes followed by the word help. The forum software appears to change it to one long dash).
And yes, may need to use sudo at the beginning of the command.
I didn’t realize until now that my user account already has write access to that hostname file under /etc and that’s why it worked for me without sudo.
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What is listed after the @ in the terminal is the computer name which is stored in the file “hostname” located in the /etc directory.
In Linux Mint, it can be changed in one of two ways:
- Via the Files app, right click the etc directory and choose “Open as root”. Then open the hostname file via the text editor and change the computer name as desired, save the file and close the text editor.
- Via the terminal using the hostnamectl command as follows: hostnamectl hostname MyPC (where “MyPC” is what you want the name to be). This updates the hostname file in the etc directory without needing root access. Close terminal then re-launch it to see the updated name after the @ symbol.
There really is no danger using either method, it should not cause any problems. If you want can always just copy the hostname file to another location in your home directory before you make the change. Then you have the option to put the original back if you want (will require opening etc as root again to paste it).
Note: in the terminal entering just: hostnamectl will return the computer name and other system info. For more info on the hostnamectl command see: https://www.linux.org/docs/man1/hostnamectl.html
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This may only be a function of Linux Mint Cinnamon (I have not used Mate or XFCE). But another option is to navigate to the software in question via the main menu, then right click on the application name and there should be an uninstall option. This is how I have often uninstalled software that I had installed or software that is included with the system that I do not use/want (ex. after a clean install).
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Per this Linux Mint blog post:
Snap
We also heard your queries on the topic of snapd. This is a topic which is important to us and we already explained our position last year:
[…] as you install APT updates, Snap becomes a requirement for you to continue to use Chromium and installs itself behind your back. This breaks one of the major worries many people had when Snap was announced and a promise from its developers that it would never replace APT.
A self-installing Snap Store which overwrites part of our APT package base is a complete NO NO. It’s something we have to stop and it could mean the end of Chromium updates and access to the snap store in Linux Mint.
A year later, in the Ubuntu 20.04 package base, the Chromium package is indeed empty and acting, without your consent, as a backdoor by connecting your computer to the Ubuntu Store. Applications in this store cannot be patched, or pinned. You can’t audit them, hold them, modify them or even point snap to a different store. You’ve as much empowerment with this as if you were using proprietary software, i.e. none. This is in effect similar to a commercial proprietary solution, but with two major differences: It runs as root, and it installs itself without asking you.
First, I’m happy to confirm that Linux Mint 20, like previous Mint releases will not ship with any snaps or snapd installed. Second, to address this situation we’ll do exactly what we said we would:
- In Linux Mint 20, Chromium won’t be an empty package which installs snapd behind your back. It will be an empty package which tells you why it’s empty and tells you where to look to get Chromium yourself.
- In Linux Mint 20, APT will forbid snapd from getting installed.
You’ll still be able to install it yourself and we’ll document this in the release notes, but by default APT won’t allow repository packages from doing this on your behalf.
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General comments on the article:
Error: “app-get” should read “apt-get”.
Clarification of LTS support in Linux: Canonical is reducing its support for LTS editions of Ubuntu, unless you pay for a subscription, to five years, at last post from them. However, with a subscription Ubuntu support may be extended to ten years for its LTS editions. Some other distros still maintain free five- or six-year support for their LTS versions. Linux kernels in general however, are going to two years for LTS kernel versions. RedHat Eneteprise Linux (RHEL) is also going to maintain ten-year support, but this is a subscription distro of Linux. The next LTS edition of Ubuntu is due out in April, 2024, and will have five years of free support, ten years with a subscription.
Long-term support for Linux kernel to be cut as maintainence remains under strain
https://www.zdnet.com/article/long-term-support-for-linux-kernel-to-be-cut-as-maintainence-remains-under-strain/Canonical To Stick With 10 Year Support Cycle For Ubuntu LTS Releases
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-LTS-Sticks-With-10-YearsMy personal comments, briefly:
Getting Ubuntu Software only from the Ubuntu Software install app is like using only the Windows Store to get Windows 11 apps. Ubuntu, like Windows, is moving toward a subscription model. If you stick with Ubuntu, many of the programs which everyone else gets as .deb packages are instead offered only as Snaps. Think of this approach as using Windows-S and calling it a fully functional Windows ecosystem.
Snap is a self-contained virtualized ecosystem of apps and a framework. The other self-contained Linux ecosystems are Flatpak and AppImage. The latter carries with each program all its dependencies, which makes for very bulky installations. Flatpak and Snap have the advantage of being containerized, but Snap in particular has the disadvantage of making it difficult to share data among apps and to maintain a single, separate Userdata partition.
I am currently investigating Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) as an alternative. It uses Synaptic/Apt repos, the .deb installers, and the Debian underlying code base. Snap is not installed by default, though it can be added, as can Flatpak. But LMDE puts a Mint spin on top, and removes all Ubuntu-specific components which can be removed. Many apps which in Ubuntu Software install as Snaps are installed as .deb packages. This provides greater flexibility than the Snap-centric Ubuntu Software ecosystem.
Linux security has recently been under increasing attack, and it would be nice if someone felt the need to put together a good Linux antivirus program or suite. But frankly, for most consumer-level users, just keeping up to date with software updates (weekly) is probably enough.
Whatever your preferences, there is likely a Linux distro or family of distros which will fit your level of tech knowledge and your use needs quite well. You won’t be stuck with a one size fits all OS. But you will need to develop and use some skill and use some detective work if something isn’t working. Linux updates can cause spectacular breakage, and driver support is actually thinner than with Windows. Not being tied to one OS is both a blessing and a curse.
Spectacular breakage usually only occurs with a rolling release distro such Arch Linux or Gentoo where they release frequent updates without much testing. Such distros are meant for more experienced users who like/want the latest and greatest software, understand that comes at the cost of system stability and who have the knowledge and experience (and patience) how best to fix the breakage.
Otherwise for most people it’s best to use a point release distro such as Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or Fedora, etc. which are much more conservative in releasing updates less frequently and doing more testing to ensure stability.
As an example, over the past year using Linux Mint on two computers I have had zero issues/breakage of any kind applying hundreds of updates.
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LMDE is based on Debian, it does not have any Ubuntu components in it that need to be removed. Whereas the main Linux Mint OS is based on Ubuntu and various components such as Snaps and telemetry are removed that are normally included in the Ubuntu base.
From the Linux Mint website regarding LMDE:
LMDE aims to be as similar as possible to Linux Mint, but without using Ubuntu. The package base is provided by Debian instead.
Its goal is to ensure Linux Mint can continue to deliver the same user experience if Ubuntu was ever to disappear. It allows us to assess how much we depend on Ubuntu and how much work would be involved in such an event.
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I have also seen a few strange looks even from some IT (Information Technology) co-workers when the topic of operating systems has come up and I mentioned switching to Linux Mint (little over a year ago now) on two personal desktop PC’s. So even in IT many are so entrenched in the Windows world they are not aware that Linux can be a viable alternative. I was also guilty of that mindset until the end of support for Windows 8.1 forced me out of my comfort zone and to seriously consider other options (thanks Microsoft), since the Windows as a service (WaaS) model of Windows 10 (and newer) is just not acceptable to me. I don’t need or want big brother Microsoft trying to control what is best for MY computer or worse attempting to monetize my use of the OS or any of my data which now seems to be all about trying to compensate for their over-investment in over-hyped AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies.
Whereas Linux Mint has been designed to respect my wants/needs, has no telemetry what-so-ever, and provides full control over the OS including easy built-in control over updates, which when I choose to apply them install in a matter of minutes with no reboot required (usually only kernel updates require a reboot). Otherwise the OS stays out of my way (as an OS should) allowing me to use the computer uninterrupted for as long as I choose. It’s been quite a liberating experience. My only regret is that I did not switch to Linux years ago.
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I have two Windows 8.1 (Pro with Classic/Open Shell) desktops that I was planning an eventual move to Linux since Microsoft’s “Windows as a service” with Windows 10 (or newer) is just not an option for me, primarily due to lack of easy built-in control over updates and dislike for all the telemetry they try to collect. I don’t want anything updating on my system without my explicit consent. And I really don’t care to use third party tools or have to jump through a bunch of hoops to try to prevent Microsoft from controlling my system. But I digress…
I recently started testing Linux Mint Cinnamon a few days ago via a bootable USB. I was very impressed with the setup and operation. Everything just worked, it detected and installed all needed hardware drivers right away and I was able to immediately start evaluating/testing how the system works and that needed software is available (ex. Firefox ESR, Ungoogled Chromium, Proton Mail Bridge, KeePass, Citrix). For f.lux, software that is used to change the color (and brightness) of your screen based on time of day to help reduce impact to your sleep cycle, I found Linux Mint already has the functionality built-in via an application called Redshift. Otherwise the only exception was QTranslate that is only made for Windows and which I could not find a Linux application that even comes close to the same feature set and functionality. However as a workaround for when I need to use QTranslate I was able to use Oracle VirtualBox to run a Windows 8.1 virtual machine. However keep in mind to do that well a computer needs to have proper hardware in particular a high amount of memory (ex. minimum 16 GB) as each virtual machine also needs/uses some of the system’s memory.
So instead of waiting, I decided to go ahead with a full install of Linux Mint on the SSD on one of the two desktops after taking a Macrium Image of the Windows 8.1 system to fall back on if needed. Everything worked even better and was a lot faster being able to take advantage of the SSD. Then after taking a whole day to configure the system as needed I used Macrium to create an image and since the other desktop has exactly the same hardware I was able to simply restore the image to it. So now both desktops are running Linux Mint Cinnamon with the option to run a Windows 8.1 virtual machine.
There is still a bit of a learning curve to learn more details and tips/tricks with Linux. But Mint made the set up and running of a Linux system very easy. It’s very intuitive and works well out of the box.
It’s been almost a year now using Windows 8.1 as a virtual machine (via Oracle VirtualBox on a Linux Mint host, in order to continue using QTranslate). But the time has come to permanently shut it down as Crow Translate now works well on Linux, it even detected the system theme to use dark mode.
So now I’m completely done with Windows (and Microsoft) on my two personal desktop systems that continue to work very well on Linux Mint. I still plan to keep VirtualBox as an option if needed/wanted to test Windows or any other OS. Otherwise it’s been a liberating experience to switch and use Linux after 25+ years of using Windows. In hindsight, I wish that I had considered such alternatives years ago! 🙂
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Not to get too much off topic of the thread, but the risk of exploiting the X11 display system on a desktop Linux OS is extremely unlikely. You would have to install some kind of bad application from outside your distro’s software repository that is designed to inject, copy or log information.
While X11 is an older display protocol/system it is still receiving security updates (my Linux Mint systems received/installed them Oct. 25). Also since X11 has been around a while it’s a very stable system and why many Linux distros still use it. Whereas Wayland is still relatively new and can experience stability issues on some systems and/or applications.
As to Fedora, each release is only supported for 13 months. So about every 13 months you will need to update your system to the latest version to continue to receive updates. Whereas Linux Mint is a long term support release (LTS) and supported for 5 years.
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Encryption like theirs where the private keys stay on their end is not secure. I would never use it. Just like hushmail and safemail and other honeypots.
Private keys for encryption are stored on the user’s device(s). Some snippets from Proton below:
Zero-access encryption is just what it sounds like: a type of encryption for data at rest that renders digital files inaccessible to the service provider. The files can only be decrypted using the user’s private encryption key. Because the server does not have access to the user’s private encryption key, once the files are encrypted with the user’s public encryption key they are no longer accessible to the server or the server’s owner. When the data owner wants to view their data, they request the encrypted files from the server and decrypt them locally on their device, not on the server.
Most companies do not implement zero-access encryption either because they sell your private information to advertisers (Google, Facebook, etc.) or because the technical challenges of implementing it are too great.
Instead, they might use regular encryption where they retain control over the encryption keys. This is like storing the key to the lock with the lock itself and creates many vulnerabilities. For example, if servers are ever hacked, your private conversations can be leaked (like in the Yahoo! breach of all 3 billion of its accounts).
Furthermore, this approach also leaves data open for misuse, either by rogue employees or unscrupulous third parties, such as in the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal. This data can also be made accessible to government surveillance agencies or sold outright to advertisers.
We drastically reduce these security and privacy vulnerabilities by using zero-access encryption to ensure that we ourselves do not have access to your data. That way, even if somehow Proton Mail servers are breached, the contents of users’ private emails will still be encrypted.
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