Update: We've pulled the original content, which recommended Wubuntu, from this article. Your trust in ZDNET's recommendations is very important to us, and part of protecting that trust is letting you know when we've gotten something wrong and making it right.

During my test period of the Windows-like Wubuntu distribution (which was roughly a week), I had no problems with it. However, after that week passed, something strange happened in the form of a persistent pop-up asking me to enter a product key for PowerTools. Unless I had a key, I could no longer use the Wubuntu desktop. The only way to get a key is to purchase one.

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I reached out to the developer who insisted I was using the Pro version (which I wasn't). The developer then sent me a license key for PowerTools which did away with the pop-up, but my curiosity about the issue was piqued.

After a bit of digging around and reading your comments, I discovered that Wubuntu is rumored to be a rebranding of LinuxFX, a distribution well-known to be a scam. This Reddit thread validated my suspicion, which pointed to the issue being that the licenses for PowerTools (and the associated personal data) were stored in a database that was very easy to breach.

Again, I reached out to the developer, asking about the connection between Wubuntu and LinuxFX, to which he replied:

Linuxfx has its own theme (resdsand) and its own selection of applications. On the other hand, Wubuntu is just a Windows theme applied over Ubuntu. People think it's the same distribution because most of the stuff behind Wubuntu is done by the same developers, but Wubuntu has a completely different purpose than Linuxfx. Wubuntu wants to look like Windows and Linuxfx doesn't necessarily. I'll explain again that Wubuntu is just Ubuntu with opensource Windows themes applied and comes with the Powertools tool pre-installed.

He also said: "Wubuntu is just an Ubuntu with opensource Windows themes, where the source links are available on sourceforge. The most partisan users are against a Linux with a Windows theme, but the system is really just a pure Ubuntu with a Windows theme."

I checked out the Sourceforge page and, to my surprise, also found it linked to a LinuxFX Redsand Theme. That link actually takes you to the LinuxFX Sourceforge OS page (and not a theme).

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Because of this, I cannot, in any way, recommend this distribution to anyone. I'm not saying, with absolute certainty, that Wubuntu is as problematic as LinuxFX was/is, but because there is some level of uncertainty and unanswered questions, I recommend avoiding this distribution. It would be one thing if the nag wasn't so persistent and you could use the desktop without purchasing a license. Unfortunately, that is not what I found to be the case.

This is troubling and points to a growing issue within the open-source community. When I first started covering Linux and open-source in 1999, there was this unwritten, sacred rule that trust was the bedrock of the community. Linux and the software available for the platform was always trustworthy and there was never the need to consider "what happens if..."; it was all good to go.

Now? Bad actors have infiltrated the rank and file and have decided nothing is sacred and that is a shame...but the shame is on those who would use Linux and open-source for nefarious purposes.

One of the many wonderful things about Linux is that you can make it look and behave how you want, thanks to Linux being open-source and highly flexible. If you want to go crazy and create a desktop that looks and feels unlike any other, you can. But there are also distributions for people who'd rather have a user-friendly and instantly familiar desktop environment. With Linux, it's aways been about choice.

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But when some of the choices cannot be trusted, the field gets narrower and you start to shy away from any distribution that isn't a part of the mainstream (such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, elementary OS, openSUSE, Manjaro, Linux Mint, etc.). That, my friends, is not in the spirit of open-source and it is my hope that we can eventually turn that rising tide around and return to the trust the community worked so hard to build.

To that end, I would recommend that you look at Zorin OS for a desktop that can resemble Windows while also being 100% trustworthy.

Here's my video further discussing this situation: