Nothing to say

Ubuntu has a strict policy of including only free software in their distributions. Having downloaded and installed Ubuntu, nothing that wasn’t free was loaded. Things are easy to correct oneself, even to a complete novice, but the decision must be made by the user.

When I first installed the distro, as I mentioned, there was no wireless. A little bubble alert popped up to tell me that some hardware wasn’t fully supported. It told me that the driver is proprietary, and thus cannot be supported. Do you want to use it? Yes. Wireless networks found. Neat.

Firefox is the web browser they choose in Ubuntu. It’s free, so it’s installed. Flash player is proprietary, so it’s not. The first time you go to a page (homestarrunner, youtube, whatever) that has a flash animation on it, there’s an alert. Do you want to install it? Yes. It’s installed. The animation plays. Neat.

The coolest thing about Firefox is that it’s for Linux and Windows and Mac and everything.

Firefox also has something called Extensions. They’re great. Firefox extensions work in Firefox, regardless of what operating system you’re using. If you have Firefox installed, you can load extensions on it. Two of the most popular are called AdBlock and NoScript. AdBlock literally blocks ads. It tells your computer to not go to certain sites (you can create the list yourself, or subscribe to an existing list). If you choose to block the sites that host ads, you don’t see those ads. It’s super simple. NoScript blocks sites from running Javascript and other scripts. A LOT of sites won’t work with javascript blocked. You’d be surprised how many. But they also can’t install malicious software on your computer if they’re blocked. Where AdBlock allows everything by default (then you choose to block what you want), NoScript takes the opposite approach. It blocks EVERYTHING, and then you tell it what to allow (this creates what is called a ‘whitelist’) and it allows it.

Apparently, there are reports of Firefox in Ubuntu crashing like a teenager in a bumper car. That is to say frequently. Before visiting ANY sites, I installed the two aforementioned extensions in Firefox, and I haven’t had a SINGLE crash. Not one.

Conclusion: Install NoScript and AdBlock, subscribe to the adblock list for your region, and have fun.