Few ideas to improve UM: roles & security

Hello all,

Thank you very much for providing us people with this great flavour of Ubuntu; MATE.

I have a couple of ideas to improve this great distro:

  1. Role based installation: roles save the user a lot of installation & configuration time for a certain goal.
    here are some of the roles I can think of:
    General use: a basic MATE installation is good enough for this.
    Gaming: needs games, graphics drivers, Steam, other gaming clients…etc. and maybe relative software.
    Education: text editors, references, dictionaries, libraries, other learning software, offline encyclopedia…etc.
    Music: music editing software like audacity, timidity…etc.
    Video: video editing software like Blender (Video Sequence Editor), Avidemux, Pitivi, Kdenlive, OpenShot, Kino, Cinelerra, Shotcut…etc.
    Developer: IDEs, programming languages like Python, Ruby, PHP, .NET …etc.
    That is just a short list of roles, so it needs expansion on the roles and proper software for each. Also allowing multi-roles can be a good idea.

  2. Security & its applications.
    I’ve noticed that you already added a gui for firewall & even Mr. Wimpress did a fine Youtube video tutorial on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBaFL6UnDAE so thanks a lot for that effort.
    However, I think there is still a need for a working antivirus with Gui such as ClamAV.
    And maybe some sort of Host based IDS/IPS (HIDS/HIPS) like Snort, Suricata …etc. with Gui.
    Also securing the browser with addons on like Noscript, uBlock Origins, HTTPS Everywhere, Ghostery, Bettery Privacy, Disconnect…etc. is a good idea, preferably a separate installation of Firefox.
    Finally, it is a good idea if there was a security center like Windows one to remind the user of current security status.

That is all I can think of right now :slight_smile:

Thanks again and best regards.

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Possibly this Tutorial will address the second point …
Security on Linux and do I need an AntiVirus app?

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Heard that Ghostery tracks you, and a better alternative would be Privacy Badger. Any thoughts on this?

try Virtualbox + Tails then https://tails.boum.org/

Thanks for the link and info. I was after having an AV + HIDS pre-/installed on uMate & ready to be used for/by average user.

While there exists a possibility of malware being released to negatively affect Linux …

It is generally accepted that there are no currently wild viruses for Ubuntu, or any Linux based system. That is unlikely to change because of the vast quantities of eyes watching the code, integrated update system, and more in-built security.

I’m a big fan of the idea of having FireFox come with addons by default. Especially, if I had to pick one: uBlock Origin. After all, the browser is the biggest security risk and adverts are the first source of malware out there.

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Privacy Badger is made by the EFF.
That’s an organization you can trust to have your back.

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I second uBlock Origin!

here’s a snip from the web

BEWARE! uBlock Origin is COMPLETELY UNRELATED to the web site ublock.org**

The donations sought by the individual behind ublock.org are not benefiting any of those who contributed most to create uBlock Origin (developers, translators, and all those who put efforts in opening detailed issues). For the differences in features between uBlock Origin and uBlock, you are more likely than anywhere else to find an unbiased explanation in this Wikipedia article.

uBlock Origin is NOT an “ad blocker”: it is a wide-spectrum blocker – which happens to be able to function as a mere “ad blocker”. The default behavior of uBlock Origin when newly installed is to __block ads, trackers and malware sites __-- through EasyList, EasyPrivacy, Peter Lowe’s ad/tracking/malware servers, various lists of malware sites, and uBlock Origin’s own filter lists.


Emphasis added!

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Quite. I seem to recall GRC’s Steve Gibson describing it as an “HTTP Firewall”. I use it on all my machines, as well as Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere.

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Hi @ouroumov,

although I agree with you in part, Ad-Ons can be a source of security problems so whatever ones are chosen by default, should be well screened and well tested!. :smiley:

Ad-Blockers have their disadvantages too as some sites rely on ads for their revenue and/or, won’t let you do anything if the ad-blocker is active!. :smiley:

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Thanks for the info. :slight_smile:

So since Firefox customization is currently a hot topic, I’d be interested to hear from @Wimpy about this too. :]
@Wimpy: uBlock Origin addon on Firefox by default, yay or nay?
Cheers

It is not packaged in the Ubuntu archive, so no. Sadly not. Also, I’m very sensitive to the fact the browsers represent most of the user interaction with their computer. I don’t want to hijack the default browser experience.

However, a currated list of Firefox and Thunderbird extensions is a possible idea.

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Do you think it would be possible to install those extensions through the “Getting Started” steps of Welcome? That would be awesome.

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Not really. I’m thinking just a small list of suggested extensions with links.

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Well, if we were to add them to the Software Boutique later… “collection lists”, would fit in well to keep them out of the main categories. :wink: (Feature not implemented yet)

There could be a topic in the Tried & Tested section for such list.

This would be brilliant!

I think there is a need to have a separate security and privacy manager either in the control center or as part of the Welcome application where many of these suggestions can be bundled.

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