[exDM69]

I might be wrong here, but isn't the open source Chromium software shipped without Google branding and integration? As in, it doesn't contain the stuff which concerns your privacy.

Installing a new browser and setting it as the default browser is pretty trivial in Ubuntu (not so much in other distros), so if they change the default browser, it's hardly a reason to change distros.

[seabee]

You're right. Ubuntu's repos only have Chromium, which (IIRC) has things like Instant Search disabled.

You'd have to add Google's repo to download Chrome, but why would a Linux distro make a closed source browser their default?