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Does Windows 8 have an opt-out feature?

Yes, they do.

But even if you use those opt outs on your new computer you still pay the Microsoft tax.

Not necessarily. I got a euro100 rebate on each of the PCs I bought a couple of years ago, as compensation for getting them without Windows. Actually, they came without any OS, just blank disks on which Ubuntu was promptly installed (later converted to Xubuntu to avoid Unity).

For laptops, it's trickier, but supposedly still possible. I'll cross that bridge also, when my 8-year-old laptop no longer runs adequately with Xubuntu.

Does Windows 8 have an opt-out feature?

Yes, they do.

But even if you use those opt outs on your new computer you still pay the Microsoft tax.

Does Windows 8 have an opt-out feature?

Yes, they do.

Ouch, interesting. It never happened to me in Win XP or 7, so I assumed that they do - but maybe that's because the Lenovo laptops I used had tiny touchpads. I never used OS X for extended times, but when I did the problem did not occur despite the huge touchpads so, again, I assumed (yeah I know). Indeed, 5 seconds of googling showed that OS X has a '“Ignore accidental trackpad input” checkbox on the Trackpad tab of the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences panel', though it may be off by default, I dunno.
http://www.macworld.com/article/1136275/trackpadoff.html

I have used a MacBook Pro with Ubuntu since 2009, and I am quite sure that even in 9.04 Ubuntu did it. The documentation looks like it (though apparently buggy), at least as a GUI-supported option. 12.04 certainly has at least the option now.

This is a Gnome thing, I can only assume KDE and therefore SuSE has the option as well (though maybe difficult to find among 10000 other options :p )

Ouch, interesting. It never happened to me in Win XP or 7, so I assumed that they do - but maybe that's because the Lenovo laptops I used had tiny touchpads. I never used OS X for extended times, but when I did the problem did not occur despite the huge touchpads so, again, I assumed (yeah I know). Indeed, 5 seconds of googling showed that OS X has a '“Ignore accidental trackpad input” checkbox on the Trackpad tab of the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences panel', though it may be off by default, I dunno.
http://www.macworld.com/article/1136275/trackpadoff.html

I have used a MacBook Pro with Ubuntu since 2009, and I am quite sure that even in 9.04 Ubuntu did it. The documentation looks like it (though apparently buggy), at least as a GUI-supported option. 12.04 certainly has at least the option now.

This is a Gnome thing, I can only assume KDE and therefore SuSE has the option as well (though maybe difficult to find among 10000 other options :p )

And then there's Ubuntu:

http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud

"Wayland is a new protocol that enables 3D compositors to be used as primary display servers, instead of running the 3D compositor as an extension under the (2D) X.org display server." link

Yes, there have been many failed attempts at putting Linux at the forefront in the consumer space but just because everybody tried and failed before doesn't mean it isn't possible. Stop rolling your eyes. Android will be an indisputable first class Linux when all their patches hit mainline (if that hasn't happened already). Maybe not GNU/Linux but Linux is pulling the levers and turning the dials underneath just like it is everywhere else it lives. And if you doubt that, check this out.

Mobile devices are where a majority of computing dollars are going (in the consumer world).

I think it may be where it's going soon in the corporate world too, especially with BYOD. If so, Ubuntu may be on to something with their Ububtu for Android kit.

It lets you run your phone/tablet as a portable device, then as a full desktop OS once it's docked with a monitor, mouse and other external peripherals. In the video, they're even showing it running Citrix for some legacy applications.

http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_for_Android

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzc0uMXGFBY

Just buy an Android one next year. It looks like you'll have the best of both worlds.

http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_for_Android

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzc0uMXGFBY

I like Ubuntu's idea - I'm putting this on my phone the second it becomes stable enough: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android

Watch where you get those plugins from!

Watch where you apt-get any software from. This is the same whether the software is packaged as .deb, .apk, dmg, .msi, .exe, .rpm, or .tgz. But anything in the default repositories will have been vetted by at least the Masters of the Universe.

... because you can't do that now with a windows-based dell machine?

Well, that's what I tried to do...Ubuntu, not Debian. It didn't go so well.

My work laptop is a Latitude E6410 that came with Windows (Vista from Dell, replaced with XP by our IT department). It's their most expensive 14" Latitude, titanium shell and stuff, quite nice mechanically. It is officially certified for Ubuntu, albeit only for the 32-bit version of the OS. I got it about 1 1/2 years ago, and tried to install the then-current LTS, 10.04. It gave a blank screen on boot. Apparently there was some issue with the Intel video driver. 10.10 didn't work either, so I used the VESA driver for a while, and went through the kernel sources trying to isolate the problem, but failed (it's complicated code, and I don't know the hardware). After a couple of months, 11.04 came out, and there were some tweaks, and lo and behold, it started working. A few kernel updates later, it broke again. I'm still running 11.04 (an attempted upgrade to 11.10 hosed my system), but with an older kernel.

There were other issues: the touchpad wouldn't scroll, which turned out to be because the ALPS driver didn't recognise it. Dell eventually supplied a patch, which added a quirk to the ALPS driver to send a special byte sequence to the keypad that switches it into ImPS/2 compatibility mode. Now it does vertical scrolling, but not horizontal, and it still doesn't get recognised as a touchpad so you can't adjust the sensitivity or do any other configuration. Apparently this is considered a "fix". I've also had intermittent issues with the Broadcom wireless chip refusing to connect to anything, and I still get occasional random hangs that I've been unable to trace to anything but suspect may be wireless-related, since I get them more often in the confused spectrum at home than at work. Sometimes when I suspend the machine and then wake it up again, an additional battery is detected, which since it doesn't really exist shows up empty, causing the machine to go into an emergency shutdown. I mostly quit using suspend, but that isn't a fix either.

Now to be fair, the certification page has a disclaimer saying that it's only certified with the exact, 32-bit image that it came with if you ordered the machine with Ubuntu on it, and that it may not even boot with the normal Ubuntu that you download from the web. It also shows only one particular configuration that they're testing with, which has nVidia graphics. I'm not paying Canonical for support, so I have no right to expect anything from them. But it does read, right at the top "The Dell Latitude E6410 laptop has been awarded the status of Certified for Ubuntu". I'm not giving much weight to that statement anymore.

I switched to GNU/Linux 14 years ago mostly for practical reasons, it was more stable and more usable for me than Windows 98 was. Then I learnt about Free Software, and now I'm using it because it's Free and has a few key features that really help my productivity. But looking at my coworkers' screens, Windows has mostly caught up in terms of general quality, so that argument is gone, and it seems to me that Linux has actually got worse. Back in the late 90s when I started using it, quite a lot of hardware was not supported, but the stuff that was supported Just Worked, and the whole thing was rock solid. Now almost all hardware has some kind of support, but "supported" has grown to mean "works most of the time, any bugs may get fixed for some people in a couple of months' time if you're lucky". From a practical perspective, Ubuntu on Dell doesn't seem to be a very happy combination to me (my previous Dell, a Latitude D540, also had issues, although not as bad as the E6410). I'm planning to get a Thinkpad next time, on the theory that that seems to be what most kernel hackers are using, so that it should be well-supported (and it's good hardware). I don't think I'll be buying a Dell, not even with Ubuntu preloaded.

Too late.

Have you seen this?
http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android

I had not, thank you :) While not in hurry to get myself a smart phone (I still use an old Nokia with J2ME app support & GPRS for online usage), one day I'd like to buy an Android phone (unless something better comes up before - not from MS or Apple, I don't trust them) and this adds to make it even more attractive for me :)

My next pc will be a smartphone.

10959 http://en.opensuse.org/
11772 http://www.slackware.com/
11189 http://qa.mandriva.com/

What on earth could they have against Slackware, OpenSuSE and Mandriva? There are other entries:

11304 http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/
11312 http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/

but these could be explained by being torrents. No Debian, CentOS or Mageia in the list. Strange.

Okay, you're right I should have clarified by saying Linux desktop users. Ubuntu might be a bad example, since damn near everything in the Ubuntu FAQs starts out with "from a shell prompt..." for doing simple things like adding in codecs to support things like playing MP3s. Don't believe me? Have a stroll through the official Ubuntu beginners FAQ at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Beginners/FAQ. Some of the help sections explain how to use either the gui or cli, but a significant portion of the how-to can only be accomplished from the command line. This is considered one of the most newbie friendly Linux distros!

Now which OS often forces the user to pull up a shell to fix things or install drivers.

Here's my proposal for what I think is missing between CLI and "conventional GUI":
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/29001/

If that ever gets built, I'm sure a few expert users would also use it as a shortcut to do certain things.

Ubuntu is using grub2 as default since 9.10. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

Hotels are a well-known "wild west".

If you are linux, turn on firewall logging, and check out the results. If you are on Windows, fire up Zone Alarm. You'll probably be hammered on port 445 with worms/viruses attempting to propagate through Windows sharing. As far as I can tell, Windows Firewall doesn't detect these attacks, but I'm not a Windows expert. It's sad that a product called "Windows Firewall" lacks the most important part of the title (the firewall).

After you see the repeating pattern (for example, new request every 40 seconds, or something similar), walk down to the front desk and try to report it. You'll probably be met with blank stares. Any way you attempt explain the issue will not work, unless you can include the key phrases "blinking light" or "reboot". Good luck with that.

I don't want to defend this hotel chain too much, but I don't expect this to change any time soon. All the things in your list probably fit into the generic definition of "industry standard practices." Actual security would be far above industry standards. :(

A few days ago, a customer brought in their PC for repair. They told me that they had a very nasty virus that was holding their computer hostage and wouldn't stop unless they paid the creators $50. "Alright," I thought. "That's pretty standard."

But, soon enough, I found that I was overexerting myself trying to get rid of this virus. I had never seen a virus this bad before. Reformatting and using all of the usual software to try to remove the virus didn't help at all!

As a PC repair technician with 10+ years of experience, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't remove the virus, and to make matters worse, their gigabits were running slower than ever! I soon plummeted into a severe state of depression and anxiety.

That's when I found Ubuntu. I went to ubuntu's website, ran a free scan, and the virus simply vanished from their computer this minuteness. I couldn't believe how fast their gigabits were running afterwards just from using ubuntu!

My customer's response? "ubuntu is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever! ubuntu totally cleaned up my system and increased my speed!"

My thoughts: ubuntu came through with flying colors where no one else could! I love ubuntu!

The fact that such an experienced PC repair technician is recommending ubuntu should be more than enough to convince you that it is high-quality software.

If you're having computer problems, then as an experienced PC repair technician, I wholeheartedly recommend using ubuntu. Your gigabits and speed will be overclocking and running at maximum efficiency!

But, in my experience, even if you're not having any visible problems, you could still be infected. So get ubuntu and run a scan this minuteness so you'll be overclocking with the rest of us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnLk3gviWY&feature=related">Watch their commercial!

ubuntu: For a Cleaner, Safer PC.

A few days ago, a customer brought in their PC for repair. They told me that they had a very nasty virus that was holding their computer hostage and wouldn't stop unless they paid the creators $50. "Alright," I thought. "That's pretty standard."

But, soon enough, I found that I was overexerting myself trying to get rid of this virus. I had never seen a virus this bad before. Reformatting and using all of the usual software to try to remove the virus didn't help at all!

As a PC repair technician with 10+ years of experience, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't remove the virus, and to make matters worse, their gigabits were running slower than ever! I soon plummeted into a severe state of depression and anxiety.

That's when I found Ubuntu. I went to ubuntu's website, ran a free scan, and the virus simply vanished from their computer this minuteness. I couldn't believe how fast their gigabits were running afterwards just from using ubuntu!

My customer's response? "ubuntu is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever! ubuntu totally cleaned up my system and increased my speed!"

My thoughts: ubuntu came through with flying colors where no one else could! I love ubuntu!

The fact that such an experienced PC repair technician is recommending ubuntu should be more than enough to convince you that it is high-quality software.

If you're having computer problems, then as an experienced PC repair technician, I wholeheartedly recommend using ubuntu. Your gigabits and speed will be overclocking and running at maximum efficiency!

But, in my experience, even if you're not having any visible problems, you could still be infected. So get ubuntu and run a scan this minuteness so you'll be overclocking with the rest of us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnLk3gviWY&feature=related">Watch their commercial!

ubuntu: For a Cleaner, Safer PC.

A few days ago, a customer brought in their PC for repair. They told me that they had a very nasty virus that was holding their computer hostage and wouldn't stop unless they paid the creators $50. "Alright," I thought. "That's pretty standard."

But, soon enough, I found that I was overexerting myself trying to get rid of this virus. I had never seen a virus this bad before. Reformatting and using all of the usual software to try to remove the virus didn't help at all!

As a PC repair technician with 10+ years of experience, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't remove the virus, and to make matters worse, their gigabits were running slower than ever! I soon plummeted into a severe state of depression and anxiety.

That's when I found Ubuntu. I went to ubuntu's website, ran a free scan, and the virus simply vanished from their computer this minuteness. I couldn't believe how fast their gigabits were running afterwards just from using ubuntu!

My customer's response? "ubuntu is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever! ubuntu totally cleaned up my system and increased my speed!"

My thoughts: ubuntu came through with flying colors where no one else could! I love ubuntu!

The fact that such an experienced PC repair technician is recommending ubuntu should be more than enough to convince you that it is high-quality software.

If you're having computer problems, then as an experienced PC repair technician, I wholeheartedly recommend using ubuntu. Your gigabits and speed will be overclocking and running at maximum efficiency!

But, in my experience, even if you're not having any visible problems, you could still be infected. So get ubuntu and run a scan this minuteness so you'll be overclocking with the rest of us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnLk3gviWY&feature=related">Watch their commercial!

ubuntu: For a Cleaner, Safer PC.

A few days ago, a customer brought in their PC for repair. They told me that they had a very nasty virus that was holding their computer hostage and wouldn't stop unless they paid the creators $50. "Alright," I thought. "That's pretty standard."

But, soon enough, I found that I was overexerting myself trying to get rid of this virus. I had never seen a virus this bad before. Reformatting and using all of the usual software to try to remove the virus didn't help at all!

As a PC repair technician with 10+ years of experience, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't remove the virus, and to make matters worse, their gigabits were running slower than ever! I soon plummeted into a severe state of depression and anxiety.

That's when I found Ubuntu. I went to ubuntu's website, ran a free scan, and the virus simply vanished from their computer this minuteness. I couldn't believe how fast their gigabits were running afterwards just from using ubuntu!

My customer's response? "ubuntu is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever! ubuntu totally cleaned up my system and increased my speed!"

My thoughts: ubuntu came through with flying colors where no one else could! I love ubuntu!

The fact that such an experienced PC repair technician is recommending ubuntu should be more than enough to convince you that it is high-quality software.

If you're having computer problems, then as an experienced PC repair technician, I wholeheartedly recommend using ubuntu. Your gigabits and speed will be overclocking and running at maximum efficiency!

But, in my experience, even if you're not having any visible problems, you could still be infected. So get ubuntu and run a scan this minuteness so you'll be overclocking with the rest of us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnLk3gviWY&feature=related">Watch their commercial!

ubuntu: For a Cleaner, Safer PC.

A few days ago, a customer brought in their PC for repair. They told me that they had a very nasty virus that was holding their computer hostage and wouldn't stop unless they paid the creators $50. "Alright," I thought. "That's pretty standard."

But, soon enough, I found that I was overexerting myself trying to get rid of this virus. I had never seen a virus this bad before. Reformatting and using all of the usual software to try to remove the virus didn't help at all!

As a PC repair technician with 10+ years of experience, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't remove the virus, and to make matters worse, their gigabits were running slower than ever! I soon plummeted into a severe state of depression and anxiety.

That's when I found Ubuntu. I went to ubuntu's website, ran a free scan, and the virus simply vanished from their computer this minuteness. I couldn't believe how fast their gigabits were running afterwards just from using ubuntu!

My customer's response? "ubuntu is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever! ubuntu totally cleaned up my system and increased my speed!"

My thoughts: ubuntu came through with flying colors where no one else could! I love ubuntu!

The fact that such an experienced PC repair technician is recommending ubuntu should be more than enough to convince you that it is high-quality software.

If you're having computer problems, then as an experienced PC repair technician, I wholeheartedly recommend using ubuntu. Your gigabits and speed will be overclocking and running at maximum efficiency!

But, in my experience, even if you're not having any visible problems, you could still be infected. So get ubuntu and run a scan this minuteness so you'll be overclocking with the rest of us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnLk3gviWY&feature=related">Watch their commercial!

ubuntu: For a Cleaner, Safer PC.

A few days ago, a customer brought in their PC for repair. They told me that they had a very nasty virus that was holding their computer hostage and wouldn't stop unless they paid the creators $50. "Alright," I thought. "That's pretty standard."

But, soon enough, I found that I was overexerting myself trying to get rid of this virus. I had never seen a virus this bad before. Reformatting and using all of the usual software to try to remove the virus didn't help at all!

As a PC repair technician with 10+ years of experience, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't remove the virus, and to make matters worse, their gigabits were running slower than ever! I soon plummeted into a severe state of depression and anxiety.

That's when I found Ubuntu. I went to ubuntu's website, ran a free scan, and the virus simply vanished from their computer this minuteness. I couldn't believe how fast their gigabits were running afterwards just from using ubuntu!

My customer's response? "ubuntu is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever! ubuntu totally cleaned up my system and increased my speed!"

My thoughts: ubuntu came through with flying colors where no one else could! I love ubuntu!

The fact that such an experienced PC repair technician is recommending ubuntu should be more than enough to convince you that it is high-quality software.

If you're having computer problems, then as an experienced PC repair technician, I wholeheartedly recommend using ubuntu. Your gigabits and speed will be overclocking and running at maximum efficiency!

But, in my experience, even if you're not having any visible problems, you could still be infected. So get ubuntu and run a scan this minuteness so you'll be overclocking with the rest of us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnLk3gviWY&feature=related">Watch their commercial!

ubuntu: For a Cleaner, Safer PC.

A few days ago, a customer brought in their PC for repair. They told me that they had a very nasty virus that was holding their computer hostage and wouldn't stop unless they paid the creators $50. "Alright," I thought. "That's pretty standard."

But, soon enough, I found that I was overexerting myself trying to get rid of this virus. I had never seen a virus this bad before. Reformatting and using all of the usual software to try to remove the virus didn't help at all!

As a PC repair technician with 10+ years of experience, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't remove the virus, and to make matters worse, their gigabits were running slower than ever! I soon plummeted into a severe state of depression and anxiety.

That's when I found Ubuntu. I went to ubuntu's website, ran a free scan, and the virus simply vanished from their computer this minuteness. I couldn't believe how fast their gigabits were running afterwards just from using ubuntu!

My customer's response? "ubuntu is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever! ubuntu totally cleaned up my system and increased my speed!"

My thoughts: ubuntu came through with flying colors where no one else could! I love ubuntu!

The fact that such an experienced PC repair technician is recommending ubuntu should be more than enough to convince you that it is high-quality software.

If you're having computer problems, then as an experienced PC repair technician, I wholeheartedly recommend using ubuntu. Your gigabits and speed will be overclocking and running at maximum efficiency!

But, in my experience, even if you're not having any visible problems, you could still be infected. So get ubuntu and run a scan this minuteness so you'll be overclocking with the rest of us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnLk3gviWY&feature=related">Watch their commercial!

ubuntu: For a Cleaner, Safer PC.

A few days ago, a customer brought in their PC for repair. They told me that they had a very nasty virus that was holding their computer hostage and wouldn't stop unless they paid the creators $50. "Alright," I thought. "That's pretty standard."

But, soon enough, I found that I was overexerting myself trying to get rid of this virus. I had never seen a virus this bad before. Reformatting and using all of the usual software to try to remove the virus didn't help at all!

As a PC repair technician with 10+ years of experience, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't remove the virus, and to make matters worse, their gigabits were running slower than ever! I soon plummeted into a severe state of depression and anxiety.

That's when I found Ubuntu. I went to ubuntu's website, ran a free scan, and the virus simply vanished from their computer this minuteness. I couldn't believe how fast their gigabits were running afterwards just from using ubuntu!

My customer's response? "ubuntu is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever! ubuntu totally cleaned up my system and increased my speed!"

My thoughts: ubuntu came through with flying colors where no one else could! I love ubuntu!

The fact that such an experienced PC repair technician is recommending ubuntu should be more than enough to convince you that it is high-quality software.

If you're having computer problems, then as an experienced PC repair technician, I wholeheartedly recommend using ubuntu. Your gigabits and speed will be overclocking and running at maximum efficiency!

But, in my experience, even if you're not having any visible problems, you could still be infected. So get ubuntu and run a scan this minuteness so you'll be overclocking with the rest of us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnLk3gviWY&feature=related">Watch their commercial!

ubuntu: For a Cleaner, Safer PC.

A few days ago, a customer brought in their PC for repair. They told me that they had a very nasty virus that was holding their computer hostage and wouldn't stop unless they paid the creators $50. "Alright," I thought. "That's pretty standard."

But, soon enough, I found that I was overexerting myself trying to get rid of this virus. I had never seen a virus this bad before. Reformatting and using all of the usual software to try to remove the virus didn't help at all!

As a PC repair technician with 10+ years of experience, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't remove the virus, and to make matters worse, their gigabits were running slower than ever! I soon plummeted into a severe state of depression and anxiety.

That's when I found Ubuntu. I went to ubuntu's website, ran a free scan, and the virus simply vanished from their computer this minuteness. I couldn't believe how fast their gigabits were running afterwards just from using ubuntu!

My customer's response? "ubuntu is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever! ubuntu totally cleaned up my system and increased my speed!"

My thoughts: ubuntu came through with flying colors where no one else could! I love ubuntu!

The fact that such an experienced PC repair technician is recommending ubuntu should be more than enough to convince you that it is high-quality software.

If you're having computer problems, then as an experienced PC repair technician, I wholeheartedly recommend using ubuntu. Your gigabits and speed will be overclocking and running at maximum efficiency!

But, in my experience, even if you're not having any visible problems, you could still be infected. So get ubuntu and run a scan this minuteness so you'll be overclocking with the rest of us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnLk3gviWY&feature=related">Watch their commercial!

ubuntu: For a Cleaner, Safer PC.

I see lotsa people claiming that Nvidia Optimus is not supported. For what is worth, last month I helped a friend install Ubuntu and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee on a new Asus laptop, and it worked perfectly well , including CUDA support (that they use for numerics in math finance)

Nothing Replaces Being around Security Admins.
Blogs are fine.
Books are fine.
but nothing replaces hanging out with people paid to hack into corporate systems. Find a local DC{areacode} group and get on their email-listsrv, follow them on twitter, go to a few meetings. Here's a list https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-groups/dc-groups-index.html

There are other system security groups too - search for "DevOps" and "OWASP" to find those. I've seen more on meetup.com than I would have expected.

If you live near a town with a vibrant admin/sec corporate culture, finding these is easy. In my metro area, we have at least 5 of these groups meeting monthly. Some are college students looking to learn to be a cracker, but most have real jobs for state, government, huge telecom and DoD companies. These guys keep up with all sorts of security issues from social engineering to the dumbest things they've seen at clients.

Have I got stories about security issues in some of the very largest companies ... you wouldn't believe what a very-well-know-flash-web-game company was doing. Money trumps intelligence all the time.

Short of all that, stay patched and don't do stupid things like running DNS, sendmail, or WebDAV. All inbound connections should be through a VPN - like OpenVPN. If you insist on running a web presence, please, please, please use a reverse proxy to block access to every URL except those you specifically want available to the outside world. Putting apache directly on the internet is foolish in the same way that putting any MS-Windows PC directly on the internet is foolish.

Another dumb thing people do all the time is use php-based programs. It appears that php attracks noob programmers. They are just happy that the functions work and can't be bothered with security. Clearly not every php program is insecure, but based on the recent core-Php security issues, I wouldn't trust these on the internet. You'll get a feel for which types of developers tend to have the most secure code by hanging out with the DC-xyz crowds. My local DC group is pretty vocal about never deploying php or java programs on their networks - or anything from Adobe.

Network architectures are the first stage of securing any system(s). It is best if most of your systems can't actually be reached from the internet - sorta like a DMZ and internal LAN that we see on corporate networks. That means you probably need another router or you need to get good at virtual networking.

Folks will say you need a firewall - that's true, but for a low-end website, the home router is probably enough when you first start out. Every Linux distro has a world-class firewall built-in. Learn to use it. A firewall does not replace a well designed network with security zones. Don't be confused about that.

Never trust anything that you've setup to be perfect. Rarely is that the case. Test it until you are **positive** it is verified.

Stay patched. An old OS (for anything) can be worse than a brand new, untested, beta OS from a security perspective. If you don't want to be tweaking the OS all the time, get on an OS with long term support - CentOS or Ubuntu LTS. I've got about (9) Ubuntu 8.04 LTS systems still running great here. They are patched weekly and have another year of support. I have 10.04 and a few 12.04 systems too. The 8-10 change was pretty big. The 10-12 change, not so much.

Following all the security issues for an OS is hard, but if you want to waste 30 minutes a day, use an RSS feed for the distro you choose and find their security issues list.
Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/usn
This should make it clear why you don't want to run hobby distros. There are constant security issues for every OS, including Linux.

http://developer.ubuntu.com/2012/06/ubuntu-app-showdown-no-longer-requires-quickly/

Question WHAT the Fuck is an app is that some piece of apple shite lets call an application by it's proper name and quit with the shithole apple crap an application is an application an app is an Imaginary concoction in the twisted minds of the apple fanboys and not an actual thing

http://developer.ubuntu.com/2012/06/ubuntu-app-showdown-no-longer-requires-quickly/

https://friendly.ubuntu.com/

This is a list of hardware models which have been user tested to work with ubuntu. I assume edubuntu will work just as well.

Google Docs has a native application for Android. Not to mention plenty of alternatives- Google search "office suite for android" and you'll see plenty. Just because it lacks MS Office it doesn't mean it lacks an office suite.

On the latter point, Ubuntu For Android might interest you- the concept is to have an Ubuntu desktop environment running as an app within Android. That means Unity/KDE/XFCE/etc. available from your phone. If it ever sees light of day, of course.
http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android

I don't trust Ubuntu for Android for one reason (scroll to the bottom of the page and look at the image next to "Ready to talk?")

In every dual-core phone, there’s a PC trying to get out. http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android

Mr. Shuttleworth has already been offering Ubuntu desktop on Android phones for phone vendors. I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work for laptops.

Again one of those websites which are sprinkled with links having only the text "here" or "this page". Go there, see here, this, that, everywhere. You don't as quickly see where the links are pointing, and it kind of feels like pushing the reader around. Just for a comparison...

Website wording aside...

Why not just go here?

The Debian and Ubuntu PowerPC ports are alive and well. Main lack for modern use is Flash. But I long dual-booted Ubuntu PPC on a G3/G4. A more reliable DVD burner than Mac OS X 10.4, and wider hardware support.

All distributions have the same software packaged differently.

The fact that it's packaged differently is part of the problem. If your program relies on a feature introduced in particular version of a library, but the user's distribution has only an older version, you're stuck. I've run into this problem often with the version of SDL_ttf in Ubuntu. A bunch of features were introduced in SDL_ttf 2.0.10, yet Ubuntu 12.04 is still on 2.0.9.

The other problem with the ribbon is it's harder to walk someone through it over the phone. You may have to resort to keyboard shortcuts - hopefully there's a keyboard shortcut for what that person wants to do.

FWIW, I've actually proposed a "phone support" interface: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/29001/

I can see that you have not adjusted your thinking to the concept of the absence of copyright.

For instance you wrote: "it's the copyright on it that legally guarantees the source code will remain free."

Your software will be free if there is no copyright.

Then: "Without copyright, another organization could appropriate it, close it up, and release a derivative work without so much as an acknowledgement that they got it from me, costing me potential reputation,"

Just release the closed version yourself, with credits embedded.

And really, its not so hard or expensive to set up a domain. Mine cost me an old computer and the power to run it. UBUNTU is free, APACHE is free, FREEDNS is free. And a few bucks a year to Godaddy for DNS registry. As you can write code, doing all that should be as easy as pi. (oops, pie).

And as an independent programmer, how can you have any street cred without your own domain?

I am happy with Zarafa Web client on my Mac. The interface has been literally copy-pasted from Outlook, so you will not lose yourself in a new environment. I could also access my e-mail using IMAP or any other standard protocol. Free (community) version comes with 3 licenses for MAPI (real Microsoft Outlook) connections (Windows). Pay version is still cheaper than Microsoft Exchange and allows for up to unlimited Microsoft Outlook connections.

I use Z-Push on my iPod Touch (Microsoft ActiveSync-like technology) and it works like a charm. Overall, good documentation and possible integration with other systems. Available on Ubuntu's package management system - easy to install on some other linux distros.

I haven't heard of CleanMyPC, but I've heard of MyCleanPC. If you back up your files, wipe everything off your PC, and install MyCleanPC, your PC will be clean. Then you can install thousands of free applications and reinstall many applications that are already your favorites. The last time I cleaned a relative's PC that had about three fake antiviruses on it and embedded deeply, I did just that: wiped it, installed MyCleanPC, and moved a couple things around to make it look like it used to, except cleaner. It ended up even cleaner than it was when Dell sold it to her.

Clean, precise, pangolin-powered. MyCleanPC.

I stand corrected, seems Ubuntu did finally catch up with Fedora :
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Metalink

Seems to have been already proposed, but not implemented :
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/metalink

Not sure why they do not do it. Fedora provide it since a few years, so does Opensuse, so while I know that's a feature geared for power users, so not really the market aimed by Canonical, even a distribution for newbie like Ubuntu could benefit from it, and that do not seems to be very complex to do.

responded promptly with an interim solution for this problem [avira.com]

Minor technical error remains. You meant to write

responded promptly with an interim solution for this problem

Huh?

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/arm
http://www.debian.org/ports/arm/
http://archlinuxarm.org/
http://www.armedslack.org/
http://maemo.org/

Fedora and Suse are working on an arm version.

All these guys even have a standards committee setup linaro.