Ubuntu

Ubuntu is the most widely used GNU/Linux operating system in the world, and is widely regarded as being the easiest to configure and use. Ubuntu is used by large organizations such as Google and IBM as a tool for programming across an array of different domains.

Getting Ubuntu

Ubuntu comes in several different versions, the most popular as of this writing being 12.04, which can be found here.

Removing Amazon Spyware from Unity

sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping

this does not work for newer versions.

Replacing Unity

Purging Unity from 12.04.3 LTS

To install the Cinnamon Desktop Environment (A GNOME 3 Fork):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install cinnamon