My opinion is mostly based on ubuntu and kubuntu. I have no clue about archlinux :)

Worst choice. ;)

Now, now, let's not be too hard on the guy. Everyone has to start somewhere, and the most common distribution is a reasonable place to find that people start, just for that reason - it's the most common and thus most widely recognised.

The first lawsuits:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2887245/legal/lenovo-hit-with-lawsuit-over-superfish-snafu.html

It is worth the extra cash to take it to a reputable PC repair place and havem wipe it and install fresh. Assuming you don't know how or have the OS disc.

When I get equipment, ESPECIALLY 2nd hand. I always wipe & clean install it before anything else.

This is some shady shit, kinda like spyware from north american distributed computers

PrivDog ad-blocker is "nice" too:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/security/1000424/what-is-privdog-and-how-to-uninstall-it

This is one of the reasons why I dislike laptop personally. Like 90% of them force pre installed Windows with a bunch of crap added aka - Bloatware I'll never use and of course the laptop price is increased since Windows ain't free.


My suggestion:

1) Do your homework before buying laptop xxxx, if you know it comes with Windows 7/8.1 then download the appropriate non OEM iso (it's legal btw) from a different computer and reinstall the system from scratch.

If you're not very techie, take it to a friend or a good PC shop that will not rob you alive for a simple reinstall.


2) Install Linux, a good list of distros (editions) can be found here: http://distrowatch.com/


3) Buy a different brand.

Greedy...!