Re: [Trisquel-users] Ubuntu "Spyware" Will Be Disabled In Ubuntu 16.04

[dguthrie]

The problem with Mint is that it includes things like Flash and various  
codecs, when they really are not necessary even to run people's hardware. It  
might be user friendly but it really gives people the wrong idea about what  
GNU/Linux is actually for. Why can't you recommend Trisquel? It is equally  
user-friendly. And with Trisquel 8 coming soon, Cinnamon desktop environment  
will most likely be available; according to this page, it is in the  
'Universe' repository of Ubuntu:  
https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/cinnamon/
Trisquel's GNOME fallback desktop isreasonably usable as it is. Most people,  
who use their computers for web-browsing, word-processing, emails and some  
solitaire are well-catered for without the nasty parts of Mint and Ubuntu and  
other distributions. The hardware that is often unsupported in Linux-libre is  
graphics cards and wireless cards. However, in the last 5 years, things have  
come a long way with Nouveau and more wireless drivers and firmware. Nouveau,  
for example, is usable for almost all tasks, and Intel have a free driver.
It is not constructive to give people something like Mint, when something  
substantially better exists, and would in all likelihood work for them. If  
they really want a proprietary application, then there is Wine for Windows  
programs, or they can download it online (like they have been doing on  
Windows).