> Search engines who do not share the income generated by our users, are removed from Linux Mint and might get their ads blocked.

Wow, that is insane... With that sort of mentality, the next logical step is to gain market monopoly, pre-install a version of adblock with custom filters, and start charging the entire Internet to show ads.

If Google blocked Mint Linux from its results in response, it wouldn't be much of a threat.

I'm not saying they'd succeed, but based on what they're doing already I'm sure they'd be willing to try.

"In Linux Mint 12 and upcoming releases we’re hoping to provide users with the following commercial search engines: Ask.com, Google, Amazon, eBay, and the non-commercial Wikipedia."

And I was all set to install Mint tonight.

I don't begrudge them the right to manage their distro how they want, but I really hate a distro messing with my browser and search like that.

So no, I guess.

Damn.

Why is this so unacceptable? Browsers like Opera and Firefox also have deals with Google, Bing etc. for revenue sharing.

If you switch the default search engine in Opera or Firefox, they won't try to to fuck the alternative provider over by blocking his ads.

One is called choice, the other is called blackmail.