[TriLUG] Why is Ubuntu so increasingly dominant

[James Tuttle]

Andrew C. Oliver wrote:
> So I'd prefer we don't turn this into something negative, but I think if 
> you look around the next TriLUG meeting at Red Hat you'll see a few Macs 
> and a whole lot of Ubuntuists (and probably my MacBookPro with Ubuntu in 
> the decisive minority).  The latest TriLUG poll 
> (http://trilug.org/node/53) puts Ubuntu in a majority (albeit the poll 
> is far from fair or scientific as only people who love or hate ubuntu 
> are likely to answer).
> 
> I'm curious why those of you who have chosen Ubuntu have chosen it?
> 
> Myself:
> 
> 1. Community: Ubuntu people had info on how to get it installed on a 
> MacBookPro first!
> 2. Installation: It installed with a high resolution (the Dapper live 
> CD) and wireless support with few hiccups (Feisty was less lucky)
> 3. Packaging: I find it really easy to get what I want when I want it 
> with minimum conflicts (it could be I'm lucky but I haven't had a "must 
> disable this repository when installing XYZ but enable it when 
> installing ZYX or YZX breaks..." issue as of yet).
> 4. Working Compromise: I love free things.  Liberty is important to 
> me...but being free must also include the thing functioning.  Ubuntu 
> seems to make sensible compromises here most of the time.  (Minus 
> Feisty's weird ATI issues).  Meaning "free doorstop" isn't going to make 
> me all warm and fuzzy.
> 
> Why do you Ubuntu (please keep your comments positive about ubuntu 
> rather than negative about your prior distro)?
> 
> -Andy

I have, on a couple of occasions, tried to articulate the reasons that I
prefer Ubuntu and found it kind of difficult.

1. Ease - It's easy to install and easier to maintain.  Apt is an
excellent package tool.
2. Balance - Excellent balance between stability and new packages.  I
never find myself manually building packages to get new versions.
3. Package availability - Huge repositories.  Almost everything I've
ever looked for is already available.  I've never had a dependency issue
on Ubuntu.
4. Good support -  A huge, mostly intelligent community and very useful
forums are extremely helpful.
5. Easy upgrade path - I've almost always been able to upgrade in place
between versions.


That said, I occasionally find myself thinking of moving to Slackware or
Gentoo since they're 'real Linux' distributions.  I recall reading
somewhere something to the effect that 'If you learn Red Hat (or other
distros), you know Red Hat.  If you learn Slackware, you know Linux'.
Every time I start thinking about migrating, I think of the time it
would take to migrate and maintain a more hands-on system and I decide
that time with my wife is more important than a deeper understanding of
Linux.  I administrate Linux systems at work, but only as an aside to my
real job. If I wanted to learn something valuable for my job, it
wouldn't be Slackware.

Jim
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---Jim Tuttle
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