It’s interesting reading the old Linux Experiment first posts when people were contemplating which distro to install.  It’s been 4.5 years since then and the linux world has evolved.  Most noticeable, was no one talking about Mint!
I was considering three distros for my home PC dual boot:
- Debian
- LMDE
- Mint
I wanted something in the debian family since it seems to be receiving, by far, the most attention. Â I expect this also means it gets the most activity and updates. Â Ubuntu would probably work the best out of the box, but as you probably already know:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_%28user_interface%29#Privacy_controversy
Ubuntu’s privacy issues are a deal breaker of course, but they also made me question Mint.  I don’t want to support Ubuntu and I think using Mint would indirectly do that.  Also, Mint does have some minor default search engine sketchyness going on.   I realize that these developers need funding, but I don’t think selling their users’ stats or useage is the way to do it.  I think donations are the way to go and they seem to be working for Wikimedia.  Developing non-essential non-related commercial software in parallel with the OS might be another alternative… hmm, sounds like a slippery slope.
The plan was: Try LMDE first, Debian stable if more stability is needed, and Mint if I got to the point that I just wanted things to work. Â Results to follow!
TL;DR: Â I planned to install LMDE or Debian, since Ubuntu wants to track me.
Keep in mind Ubuntu’s shopping lens can be turned off from the settings panel. It was certainly a misstep on Canonical’s part, but I’m not sure that it’s fair to hold it against the organization for ever.