minty firefox rant

You can see an example of Linux Mint's Google start page here.

This is the #1 source of revenue for Mint. Here's how Husse explains things at the Mint forums:

"...when someone clicks and ad and actually also when an ad is shown the people that advertised pays a small amount and part of that goes to Mint because the ad is displayed on our customized search (much like you pay a newspaper when it prints your ad)
The customized search has drawbacks as Google for some reason does not display a normal search result page
In comes "Mint search enhancer" which restores the functionality - not only the links on top but also the "Cached" option
Strange as it may seem this creates a steady, not too small, flow of income to Mint, making it possible to pay for servers and the salary for Clem
Of course donations and sponsors also help and are very welcome, but that's the smaller part of it all"

I don't really have a problem with any of that, but once I get Mint installed I get rid of the Minty Firefox. I go with the regular Google start page. It's no big deal to change things.

In fact, as soon as I get around to it, I go to the Mozilla site and download Firefox, so in the end I don't even use Mint's Firefox.

Should I feel guilty that I use Mint without helping to support it?

Too bad, I don't feel guilty.

I believe that during the installation or initial set up, like maybe when the mintAssistant runs the first time you log in, you should have the choice of supporting Mint with the Minty Firefox and Google, or not.

Or maybe the first time Firefox starts up in Mint, a page could open up or a window could pop up where the situation is explained, and the user is given info on how to change things.


I've spoken about this at the Mint forums, about how I feel that Mint should be more "up front" about things, and that they should give users a choice in this, right from the start.

Here's the kind of thing I got back at the forums:

MALsPa: "I would like it better if the whole thing was explained up front..."

mick55: "Does Microsoft explain up front that installing their products
entitles them to remotely access your PC whenever they want to
and search your entire hard drive to see if you are running illegal software?"

That pissed me off. Has nothing to do with what Microsoft does.


I like the things that Mint forums poster buddhaflow said:

How it should work is this: Linux Mint Google is the default search. Standard Google is an option in the drop down list. That way, people can easily choose, and can switch back and forth between the two at will.

As it is, people are getting frustrated, and they have a valid reason to be. Furthermore, when they switch away from the Mint page, they are permanently on the default Google page, without any easy way to switch back if they want to support Mint. This would be the best option for everyone.


Another thing I've mentioned is that I'm not aware of any other distro that does something like this with Firefox and Google. Maybe I just missed it, but I've said something about that fact twice now at the forums and so far nobody's replied with an example of another distro that gets revenue this way. So, it's fine with me if Mint does it, and it's fine with me if other distros follow suit, but I still don't like the way it's dropped in there without the user knowing anything about it beforehand.

The word quite often used at the Mint forums to describe this whole thing is "adware."

I know that some users have dropped Mint over this issue. But not me -- I just get rid of the "adware."

Call me a freeloader, then. But perhaps most people who use Linux are freeloaders. I don't think of myself as a freeloader, though, because I spend a great deal of time at the forums of the distros that I use, and I feel that I contribute to them in that way.

End of rant.