http://finance.yahoo.com/news/13-things-seem-scams-actually-144707736.html

Check out #8.  While I don't think Ubuntu is a good choice for Linux newbies (unless they know how to navigate Windows 8), the fact remains that there plenty of alternatives: Mint, Mageia, Puppy, antiX, Snowlinux, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and many others.

-- 
Jason Hsu <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com>