1) Primitives selected from the menu on the left
2) Type S to select
3) Bang, primitive normals are displayed and well I dont want them on, and no way to turn them off (except going to the display options), not even using the Prim Normal on/off on the right of the viewport.
My question is why are they displayed automatically and secondly, is there an option/setting to prevent this. Cause if I have a complex model, selecting few primitives becomes impossible.
Oh, and It is on Linux and Windows, different video cards.

Gerome
why are they displayed automatically

So that you can more easily select primitives (normals are selectable).

The benefits and awfulness of this have been debated elsewhere.

Gerome
is there an option/setting to prevent this

There is a toggle in the display options, called Follow Selection Mask, to turn this off.