I'm new to Linux. I come from a Windows & Mac background. This is my 1st foray into Linux.

I've spent hours on YouTube & Wikipedia & Google learning more & more about Linux. I've decided that I want an Ubuntu-based distro of Linux.

I'm a bit confused about proprietary versus non-proprietary software in Linux.

I know that proprietary software means that it is copyrighted, trademarked, etc., like Adobe or Libre Office.

I also know that some distros of Linux don't allow proprietary software at all. I want to be able to install proprietary software. I would think that that would narrow down my choices considerably. If a distro allows proprietary software to be installed, does that mean that I can install Libre Office & printer drivers for my Brother printer & video card drivers, etc. without hunting for an Ubuntu-equivalent substitute?

Incorrect...Linux doesn't 'disallow' ANYTHING. If the software is written for Linux, it runs on ANY version of Linux. That said, your typical software system requirements come into play, as they do with Windows/Mac. For example, if you are running Mac OSX Yosemite and the software you purchase is for Sierra...it won't work, will it? Or try to load a program for Windows 98 onto Windows 10...chances are, it'll die.

Proprietary software means it's closed source, nothing else. You can have proprietary and FREE, too...the nVidia graphics drivers are one example. Closed-source, but works just fine on any Linux and is totally free. If you really HAVE spent hours on Google, you should already know that Libreoffice is also totally free, and runs on any version of Linux, and most printers won't give you problems either. Again, there may be closed-source drivers, but it should work fine, if the open source ones don't. My suggestion to you would be the latest Mint...Ubuntu based (and it really doesn't matter if it's Ubuntu/Debian based, or RPM/Red Hat based...they all work together), and very easy for a brand new user. Chances are all of your hardware will 'just work', unless you have something very specialized/old/new.

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Most Linux distributions will allow the installation of proprietary software. Some, like Debian (upon which Ubuntu is based) have repositories of non-free software which can be enabled at install time. ubuntu will allow th use of non-free video drivers and printer drivers (if it has them) from its repositories and will allow non-free software to be installed from elsewhere also.
Libre Office, as it's name may suggest, is free (open source, if you will) software.

Brother, AMD, and NVIDIA have proprietary drivers available for Linux. Just go to their site and find the drivers for your hardware if the Linux repository you use doesn't have them. Also you can get a lot of windows programs working with wine and winetricks (I use the PlayOnLinux front end for this). SteamOS also has proprietary programs that are run on Linux natively.

The big difference between proprietary and non-proprietary is that the license is more restrictive. The non-proprietary licenses range from taking stuff to put into software proprietary for free (BSD) to having to release the source code (GPL).

Oh, I forgot about Steam entirely! steam is in the Debian (and Ubuntu) repositories (though may need the non-free to be activated) and has a good many non-free games available.

Just two points of clarification to add: Free / Libre Open Source Software is only possible because of copyright and it can and does make occasional use of trademarks.

In the case of copyright, see the list of licenses that define whether software is free and open source. Your choice of license depends on what you want to do with the software. Some software without copyright is usually called public domain, and that is something totally different. In fact public domain may not even exist in some countries. However, public domain (software without copyright) is different than software that is simply without a copyright notice. Just to complicate things the former needs no copyright notice and the latter, by virtue of the default set by the Berne Convention, is proprietary because it has no copyright notice saying otherwise. With public domain you can do anything you want with it. With copyrighted, it depends on what the license grants permissions to do, that includes FOSS which is copyrighted.

About trademarks, they are completely independent of copyright. Linux, Firefox, Ubuntu, and LibreOffice all have trademarks, to name some popular examples.

The only piece of software that I know of that is in the public domain is SQLite. Their web site contains many pages carefully explaining how and why they did it, and what they do to maintain the public domain position.

As far as "proprietary vs. open source" is concerned, I have no problem paying money for "the best tool for the job," whatever that may be. I've sold a software product for more than twenty years now, myself.

your not unfamiliar with starting rant threads! but i'll say no more i tend to get blocked responding to them

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If your video card needs a proprietary driver (and open source ones will often suffice), there should be no problem:
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/VideoDriverHowto

You can find a driver for your Brother printer from their website
http://support.brother.com/g/b/index...autojudge=true

LibreOffice will be installed. For some idea of the commonly available software and the Linux equivalents to well-known Windows and Mac software
http://linuxappfinder.com/