or any "locked" (until we make a key) helps with the $hove-ware

Heh. It's all about the profits.

If they could, they'd get away with no warranty at all.

Further to my post I think I have confused two issues but one of them is explained here:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-newegg-34824/

Obviously, since "warranty" means "you get to call the people in very far away countries with funny accents who will read a script to you," , these people don't want you to change anything about the one-and-only setup that they've been sort-of taught to understand. (And, to be generous, how exactly could they say anything meaningful about "your Linux," or reasonably be expected to?)

When I rent a computer with the intent of putting a different OS on it, I simply remove the existing HD, put it in a static-bag clearly labeled with the computer serial# and contract#, and install a blank HD (usually, much larger and faster ... heh ...) in its place. I do all my monkey-business with that. When it's time to return the box, I reverse the process. In the rather unlikely event that someone notices that any seals have been broken, I give them my best sweet-innocence stare.

I feel better now. It seems I misjudged the system. Stupid people who are less smart than their computers are subsidizing my computer purchase! I can live with that. Okay, I spend a few days removing crap I don't want but when you consider I just bought a quad core 64-bit system for half what I paid for my 486, I come away better off. Thanks all, for the good news.

I am troubled by other trends in software, such as the Silent Sound Spread Spectrum (SSSS):
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/sound...e11dec08.shtml

You're so naive. Can't you see that's a cover up by the Crab People to distract you from their plans to take over the world?

Linux is just as bad as Windows 8. Canonical is doing the exact same pay software center crapolla in Ubuntu. Corporate fascism corrupts everything, like a fungus or mold. But I mean that in a positive way.

Ubuntu is for Linux users who need help and therefore can be easier to prey on, try Blag! Or, infinite others... even build your own.

Profits look at freedom as a cancer which is ironic in so many ways

This is precisely why I just switched from Ubuntu 10.04 (Had no intentions of continuing with Ubuntu for the rerasons you state) to Debian- and why I am trying to edumacate[sic] myself more about Linux, so that in the future I can use some of the geekier distros....as Debian seems to have a lot of bloat lately, too...and how long will it be until they go the same way as Canonical?

Where computing is headed in general (Microsh^t; Apple; Google; NSA; Face(tious)book; The Cloud, et al) really makes me want to read Jaques Ellul- on how technology will lead society to ultimate tyranny.

Thank goodness for Linux. I would have ceased using a computer if Windows and Mac were the only choices!

I'm back on D-Been for the first time in years; I like to fatten it up (and have missed the control) you can also strip it way down

Why on earth would a bunch of people producing a free (as in speech) OS which you have to make a specific choice to even let something in which doesn't have a free license do anything remotely like canonical?
I don't think you have to worry about Debian going the way of Ubuntu since it is non-profit and strives to be free.

That is exactly the reason I never even tried Ubuntu. Besides, the "over 30k of packages" Canonical blatantly advertises are .deb's. And, even after many years, they don't dare breaking full compatibility with Debian. What did they contribute to Linux community, really? Unity? Let me laugh here.
I don't see why using a poor copy instead of the real thing.

Well, install Debian using the "minimal" option - only the kernel and the basic GNU stuff, then start to build up your system by adding exactly what you need and nothing more -> No bloat at all.

As for the last part - Debian will never go the Canonical way. Reason: it's free as in "freedom", there is no company behind the product, and Debian developers don't give a... sheet if someone makes money by copying their distro.

although why can't I uninstall this https://wiki.gnome.org/Rygel never did like gnome

never-mind I got it