[TriLUG] Ubuntu: whats all the fuss?

[Cristobal Palmer]

Different people like Ubuntu for different reasons. I can only really
speak for myself:  having tracked Sarge while it was the testing
branch, I came to Ubuntu because I wanted something more stable than
Sid or Etch but more current than Sarge.

I've stayed with it because of the people. There are some great MOTUs
(praise here goes to Daniel Chen specifically) and developers working
on Ubuntu. I can't emphasize enough that the people I've interacted
with who are heavily involved in Ubuntu are awesome people. Awesome in
their knowledge and vision, but that's not what I mean. There are some
awesomely friendly people. Gentle, committed, passionate: all sorts of
adjectives that one might not expect from a Linux group. I haven't
seen a community like this around other projects.

If you've come from a fedora (or Mandriva, or SuSE, or whatever)
background and you're happy with it, I don't know that there's really
a reason for you to switch, except perhaps Ubuntu's security team.
They rock. There was an article some time back that ranked the various
distros based on how quickly they patched publicly-disclosed
vulnerabilities... can anybody link to that? I can't seem to find it
at the moment. Point is: Ubuntu got high marks.

One can get into various arguments comparing the different
philosophies behind the different distros, but that would be for
another thread. I'll stick to Ubuntu here, with the note that the
purist in me still likes the DFSG, but Ubuntu comes close and is a
good pragmatic compromise (anybody watching the firefox/iceweasel
hooplah?). I think the message(s) of "I am what I am because of who we
all are" and "humanity to others" are inspiring and continue to be so
because of the conduct of the members of the community. Ubuntu's bug
#1 is also pretty inspiring:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1

When it comes down to it, Ubuntu is doing for/with GNOME what Mandrake
did for/with KDE (don't forget Kubuntu!), and that's exciting--that
gets you in the door. I've stayed with it for the reason mentioned
above, but also because I like debianisms and because it's
ridiculously easy for me to support not only clients but my mom and
little brother when they're running Ubuntu, but you already covered
that reason. :)

Edgy is just around the corner... why not give it a shot?

On 10/19/06, Mike A. Salim <msalim at adti.us> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> OK I am getting curious about Ubuntu.  I am hearing a lot about it so I
> did the usual googling, visiting www.ubunto.com <http://www.ubunto.com/>
> etc. to see why this is a "better linux".  I was expecting to find lots
> of sites giving examples and arguments about why this is the greatest
> thing since sliced bread.  So far, I found nada (of substance).  All I
> can tell is that Ubuntu is (maybe!) better for those wishing to run
> Linux workstations for their computer un-savvy spouses.  Is that it ??!!
>
>
>
> Can someone point me to some specific advantages of Ubuntu over any
> other distro, Debian or not?  How is it better than regular Debian
> (cosmetics and catchy name aside).  Why would I choose Ubuntu over
> Centos?  Or Vista for that matter (gasp!)  I just want to understand
> what the fuss is all about in a broad minded fashion.
>
>
>
> Best regards
>
> Mike Salim
>
>
>
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-- 
Cristobal M. Palmer
UNC-CH SILS Student -- ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer
TriLUG Vice Chair
"There are many roads to enlightenment, and thus many roads back to
the One True Debian" --crimsun