Ridding Ubuntu 12.10 of Amazon

Before we start, let’s be honest. All operating systems have their annoyances. Linux is no exception to this. However, given the foibles of the suppliers of all the Linux distributions, available, the annoyances are likely to vary from distro to distro.

Last Thursday Canonical launched the latest version (numbered 12.10) of its popular Ubuntu distribution.

This new version come with a new feature or annoyance (it annoyed the chief scribe. Ed.), depending on your point of view: integration of Amazon results into a desktop search. Given the noises coming out of Canonical, this is likely to be a permanent feature in future Ubuntu releases as the company seeks to increase its earnings from its distro.

Besides switching distros, what can one do to remove this unwanted feature?

Luckily, over the weekend Ubuntu guru Bruno Girin told the chief scribe that there 2 options for disabling the Amazon search, as follows:

• Option 1: turning it off – system settings -> privacy -> include online search results = off;
• Option 2: removing the package – sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping, although those unused to or shy of the command line can also remove the package via the Ubuntu Software Center.