cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/550905
Basically, which linux distro is the best for a non-power user? Someone who wants to be able to get up and running without having to learn how to manage the OS using the cli.
Quick example: When I install a new OS, the first thing I want to do is install Brave. That should be as easy as “click on this thing, type in brave, select Brave, install.”
is it really running crypto in the back ground. When I head people say that I hear it runs some crypto mining in the background
No. You can opt into watching ads for their BAT crypto, but you can also just turn all of that off and have an awesome ad-free browser.
I consider their past behavior to be counter to their stated goal of privacy, and counter to the notion that they deserve to be trusted.
They have sent out direct mailers that basically equated to a customer list leak; also I’d take a peek at the wikipedia entry about their business model, which mentions some stuff that isn’t the most savory:
In regards to the mailers, they messed up and passed blame,
With regards to the CEO, he made a donation to an anti-LGBT cause when he was CEO of Mozilla in 2008. He lost his job at Mozilla due to his anti-LGBT stance. He also spreads COVID misinformation.
As others have pointed out, it’s also Chromium based, and so it is just helping Google destroy the web more than they already have.
It’s not crypto mining, because crypto mining is basically worthless on consumer hardware now. What it does is run its own ads and pay you for enduring them and being spied upon by them in its own cryptocurrency.