Quote:Is Ubuntu the most updated / maintained?
No, it's on par with a bunch of others. Some are more bleeding edge. Its main advantage is being easy to set up and use.
Quote:What are Ubuntu's corporate interests? Take this as the big privacy question.
They collect some of the typical app crash telemetry but that's about it. They are basically the pet project of billionaire Mark Shuttleworth, who for whatever reason is obsessed with having his own Linux distro. As far as I've seen it really done as a public service (which also makes money.)
Quote:Is Ubuntu whoring my data out to China, the US, or the US / China meth hooker backroom where government is carried out?
Nah. If you want a truly paranoid Linux I can find you one, but the tradeoff is ease of use. The most paranoid locked-down distros tend to be a bit obtuse to the average user.
Quote:What's up with Ubuntu One? Do I need an online account to use Ubuntu? Is Ubuntu One defunct?
Completely unnecessary. You do not need to use any online account of any kind to set up and use Ubuntu. I never have.
Quote:If I use Ubuntu without an online account, is my disk encrypted (talking default noob settings here)?
Completely unrelated. You can set up disk encryption during set up no matter what else you're doing.
Quote:Do I create a security key for recovery? How's recovery work? Related, will Titan keys work with Ubuntu?
Generally it's done with a boot password. So, after the BIOS loads but before you get the OS, you are prompted for a decryption password. I'm not sure if hardware keys are supported for this yet. But a password is what you would use.
This means backups also work one of two ways:
1. Direct file backups to a location of your choice (Google Drive, whatever.) These are presumably encrypted at the destination.
2. Full disk image backups, which will be encrypted.
Titan keys work fine.
Quote:Anything big that doesn't work with Ubuntu? Sites or services?
As long as you don't "need" some weird Windows app, there is almost certainly an equivalent app for Linux. Even running Windows games is not a stretch these days thanks to Steam Play, Lutris, and the like.
The main browser limitation these days is 4K video. Some sites, like Netflix, limit you to 1080p on Linux because they are worried about people ripping off the streams and an open system like Linux can't be DRMed effectively the way those companies want. Everything else will work fine.
Quote:Does Ubuntu have an app store or what?
It has
many app stores. The built-in one is meh. You will install most things via aptitude (aka `apt`). You can also install so-called "snaps" and "flatpaks." Yeah, sorry, there's no "MSI" equivalent. Linux gives you many ways to install everything, though there's usually one
best way for a particular app.
Quote:Does Ubuntu come with browsers? How about VPNs and stuff? How's it do interacting with the Google online ecosystem?
My entire job revolves around Google tools and I only use Linux. You'll be fine. It comes with browsers, VPN functionality, whatever you want. And anything it doesn't ship with, you can install.
Quote:Does Linux need antivirus? I know some times in the past people claimed Apple and Linux straight up don't need antivirus.
Linux benefits the most from a) being a smart user and b) keeping things up-to-date.
By default, NOTHING runs as root (administrator.) Everything runs in what they call "user space." Nothing can TAKE root access without asking you. You can still shoot yourself in the foot if you aren't careful or run untrusted code. But generally, as long as you acquire apps from legitimate sources (apt repos, Snap store, etc.) you are VERY unlikely to get any viruses. Most people get viruses by trying to pirate software on Windows. Pirating Linux software, while not impossible, is very rare, mostly because there just isn't much
to pirate.
There are some virus scanners for Linux but I've yet to see one that was actually necessary.
If you're looking to use some old hardware, check out Linux Mint. It's Ubuntu-based but designed for lower-end hardware.
