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250 Comments
- Carpex, on 05/16/2008, -10/+123Its funny to say but my relationship with my computer has totally changed since I switched to Ubuntu. I used to get angry when something didn't work the way I wanted with Windows. Now, I feel its like a long standing relationship with my wife. She can screw up sometimes, but our relationship is strong and our love is genuine. Nothing can't be fixed with an upgrade.
[/cheezy] - schestowitz, on 05/16/2008, -10/+102Ubuntu made some compromises (binaries), but its base (Debian) was good as well. And then there's the hype.
- xutopia, on 05/16/2008, -4/+82For me it was the first Linux release that made it possible for me to do 95% of what I wanted without having to go to the command line and edit some file or recompile the kernel.
- 0L1VER, on 05/16/2008, -5/+55Regular but stable releases with bleeding-edge features, as well as an incredible community and fantastic international localization and support. What more could you ask for?
- str1fe, on 05/16/2008, -5/+53How can you know it's overrated if you won't touch it?
- oobuntu, on 05/16/2008, -11/+57Fedora dropped the ball and ubuntu picked it up. I was one of many users who were cursing yum/rpm, fedora stability and slowness and found ubuntu to be a breath of fresh air. I hope ubuntu continues to be fresh and not stagnate, or they could find users switching en masse if they botch a release or two.
- Tyr7BE, on 05/16/2008, -1/+46It's all about attention to detail. I'm constantly being surprised by little things that I wouldn't expect. For example, when I inserted a CD that had deb packages on it, a little window popped up and said "hey, that CD has packages on it. If you'd like, I can add them to your software sources so you can install them with one click. Do you want me to make this happen?". Another time I wanted to close a browser and a little window popped up saying "Ahem, you have a text field in one of these tabs that hasn't been submitted. You sure about this?" (this was long before this feature made its way into mainstream browsers, but ubu included it). This happens all the time - I'm constantly surprised by the attention to detail that people have put into the default install. Little things that make you say "oh yeah...computer, you're probably right on this one. Nice catch."
This is the sort of thing that keeps me coming back. I've ditched windows and I've ditched OS X in favor of Ubu - it just feels very well put together. - picpak, on 05/16/2008, -0/+40The point was he was seeing how far Ubuntu has come from 5.04.
- brettalton, on 05/16/2008, -3/+43I installed Ubuntu 5.04 in VMware the other day (I can't get Ubuntu 4.10 to install) and it is absolutely amazing how far it has come (open source in general).
- deadbaby, on 05/16/2008, -3/+36Frequent updates. When Ubuntu first started getting popular it was really quite hard to get a cutting edge Linux install going. You had to work off an older version of Debian, Fedora, etc and manually hack on a lot of stuff. Ubuntu came along and offered most of this stuff out of the box with little or no extra work required.
- Lane, on 05/16/2008, -4/+36Your saving up to buy her implants aren't you?...
- blackhole82, on 05/16/2008, -4/+35well the hype has to come from something which is usually good
- whiteeagle131, on 05/16/2008, -3/+31Because of the community the most, I think.
Ubuntu has a fantastic community which loved to help whenever I had any problems (primarily I asked at the #ubuntu IRC channel).
I actually removed Windows the next day after I installed ubuntu. I did have certain problems in the past, but nothing that isn't fixed. - yetAnotherCroc, on 05/16/2008, -2/+29I agree. I think the anger at Windows stemmed from a feeling of powerlessness. If the software was flawed you couldn't do much about it other then throw a tantrum. In Linux on the other hand you know that someone else somewhere most likely figured out how to fix it so you either look up that person online or you get your hands dirty and do it yourself (if you have the knowhow). The difference is that with Linux You are in charge and you tell the system whats up, not the other way around.
- mikem94590, on 05/16/2008, -1/+27I think the fact that they have a nice GUI (Gnome) and nice features, as well as the scale of their community sets them apart.
- buddyw, on 05/16/2008, -1/+23I would say it's Debian + more up to date (less stable) repositories + hype.
- inactive, on 05/16/2008, -1/+23I recently switched over to Ubuntu. I love it. There really isn't anything I can't do in Ubuntu that I can do in Windows. I don't play too many pc games, so that's not an issue for me. Tetravex is good enough to occupy my time in Ubuntu. And if I can't figure something out....Ubuntu forums is a really nice place.
- Dylson, on 05/16/2008, -10/+32Because of names like "Hairy Hardon" and "Gutsy Gibson" and "Feisty Flawn"
- inactive, on 05/16/2008, -2/+22I think its becuse of the wonderful community. I know of several linux forums where no one really helped , or discussed issues in a friendly manner such as the ubuntu forums. The whole "human" idea behind it, is what drives ubuntu. The forum has excellent support, i have been posting/helping for many years. Ubuntu is "welcoming" instead of negative like some of the other distro forums *cough gentoo*
- SmurfSlut, on 05/16/2008, -10/+29Because its not made by microsoft
- tech42er, on 05/16/2008, -1/+20And the community. It's also got more structure than Debian, which is probably better for newbies.
- tech42er, on 05/16/2008, -0/+18Better than not being able to do anything, right?
- whiteeagle131, on 05/16/2008, -9/+27And then there's me, burying you.
- Tyr7BE, on 05/16/2008, -0/+18For me half of it was all the software. You simply can't get the selection you get on Ubuntu in any other OS.
And no, I'm not talking about "Dave's MP3 Ripper" that will work for the first 15 days and then cost you $9 to register. I only use free (as in beer) software, regardless of what OS I'm using, and there's no doubt that Ubuntu trumps both Windows and OS X. - KaiUno, on 05/16/2008, -9/+27Can't have been all the software and games...
- Tyr7BE, on 05/16/2008, -1/+18But at the same time, people are fine with having to download updates from Windows every few weeks.
Installing a new Ubuntu is like downloading a service pack in XP. Except without the license agreements. It asks you "do you want to upgrade?" You say "yes" and that's pretty much it. - Biznarie, on 05/17/2008, -0/+17Its called Compiz-Fusion now
- tama00, on 05/16/2008, -1/+18by giving ubuntu away on free cds which reached everyone who couldn't download it. popularity++ more devs joined, more changes were made.. its the evolution of life
- tech42er, on 05/16/2008, -0/+16No, you see? He was doing the equivalent of trying to install Windows 3.x just to see how far it's come.
- jsully, on 05/16/2008, -1/+17You're going to look so hot with this new monitor baby...
- jaytek13, on 05/16/2008, -1/+16It all comes down to the community and the ideas that Ubuntu was founded upon... casting aside the typical elitist Linux user, barring the "rtfm" responses, and building up a community of Linux users who are quite happy helping nubs is how Ubuntu got to where it is today, and why for the foreseeable future it will remain the top Linux distro.
- MikeCerm, on 05/16/2008, -2/+16I wouldn't call it "hype". In the beginning, there was a "positive buzz" about a Linux distro that was rooted in the fact that regular people should be able to use it. I honestly believe that, with the exception of the failed Lindows, Ubuntu was really first in selling itself to the masses in a meaningful way. Even recently, Red Hat said that they have no interest in entering the non-enterprise market. Linux has been mired by the perception (reality?) that it's only for nerds and servers, and not for home users. Ubuntu actually had the idea to specifically target home users, and they had Mark Shuttleworth's money to get the message out there.
That's how it started, but how it's maintained that edge is that it's been marketed well, and it really does have a larger support community than any other distro, and a lot of momentum to its growth. As far as I'm concerned, the best thing for the Linux market will be to coalesce around a single distro, and Ubuntu seems to be bringing a lot of people into the fold. - dinostabOMG, on 05/16/2008, -3/+17Oh please, there's no reason for this vitriol. If you have another distro you like, it's certainly benefiting from Ubuntu's attention. The desktop Linux market isn't saturated enough where one distro's popularity significantly detracts from another's userbase. I never touched Linux until Ubuntu 7.03 last year, and since then I've played with two or three other distros, including PCLinuxOS - I wouldn't have if Ubuntu hadn't gotten me interested. So enough pouting, this should be about collaboration; competition will come when there isn't enough elbow room.
- Muncher, on 05/16/2008, -2/+15Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but maybe it's because it's a nice, polished, user-friendly operating system? Too many Linux geeks dismiss it as being a "noob distro" and then wonder why everyone is using it instead of their beloved Slackware (just as an example, nothing against Slackware).
- tian2992, on 05/16/2008, -0/+13"How to do XXX with Ubuntu"…
O_o - adderx99, on 05/16/2008, -0/+13whether you have linux or windows installed, its still a pc.
- clickwir, on 05/16/2008, -3/+16For me, Fedora was 90% there. But that 10% remaining was really holding me back from switching. Mainly it was package management. Too many times did I try to install or update something and a package was missing or not updated. Ubuntu is better at this.
Also, the 2nd reason is because of good, official support for KDE. Personally, I don't care for GNOME. I much prefer KDE. They have great KDE support, very well maintained packages and repos, and that really accounts for about 9% of the remaining that kept me from moving from XP. That was enough right there to switch from XP to Kubuntu. But they went a little bit further and made some other basic needs easier and more user friendly.
I really think what makes K/Ubuntu great is that it's got such an amazing people and drive behind it. It's managed well, it's developed well, and I'm not afraid that they are going to close up shop next week. - docsarvis, on 05/17/2008, -0/+12I would extrapolate that to: Red Hat dropped the ball, Mandrake picked up the ball, Mandrake dropped the ball, Ubuntu picked up the ball. OpenSuSE and the now defunct Caldera never had the ball but were always in close proximity, as was Red Hat even after dropping the ball. Slackware and Debian have never had the ball and were off doing their own thing.
- elipabst, on 05/16/2008, -1/+12Totally agree with that. Before Ubuntu, Fedora was by far the most common distro. After Fedora spun off of Redhat, the first few releases were unstable (remember the bug that blew away your windows dual boot partition because the cylinder head count was off) and the general focus became about beta testing features for the Enterprise edition (like SELinux). As a result of the lack of focus on the user, the desktop suffered and generally lacked useful graphical interfaces, plus the package management system (RPM) generally sucked. Then along comes Ubuntu...slick desktop, nice user tools, and for many people "it just worked" out of the box. Pretty soon it was the distro of choice for newbies.
- dinostabOMG, on 05/16/2008, -3/+14care to support that?
- muppethouse, on 05/16/2008, -1/+12Those were not good times for Linux on the desktop. A year or so before the first Ubuntu came out people were running unpatched Red Hat machines because they didn't want to pay for support (myself included). Fedora came out, but it was frustrating because you essentially had to reinstall every six months to stay in support. There is this great thing that Debian has with apt called dist-upgrade, and that makes it so I don't need to reinstall from scratch with each new version. The LTS versions are amazing - basically Ubuntu is giving us for free what RHEL or SLED customers pay big bucks for. Sprinkle on top of that the fact that Ubuntu was pushing technology forward faster than Debian, and it just makes sense.
- kesam, on 05/16/2008, -1/+11That's a simple question to answer. Ubuntu is popular because it actually gives users what they want. Does that sound too obvious? Well, 95% of open source projects (if not more...) are created to scratch a programmers personal itch, or to fulfill some creation fantasy (gee, wouldn't it be cool to write _my_own_ 3d engine!?). There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but nobody is going to use your software unless you are willing to focus on the needs and wishes of others above your own personal fancies. And that is exactly what the Ubuntu team does, in my experience.
- yingjai, on 05/16/2008, -5/+15Cause he's a rebel lol
- mathwizkid, on 05/16/2008, -1/+11For me there were two reasons:
1) the marketing: it was hyped and made me want to look what the fuzz was all about
2) when I tried it ubuntu was better than all others I tried (which means that for my hardware and software needs there were the least problems) - bar10dr, on 05/16/2008, -1/+11What I hear from colleagues is that it's got great driver support, that makes a lot of difference.
- Dylson, on 05/16/2008, -12/+22That's a really old release. I would go to 8.04 if I was you. But whatever trips your trigger I suppose.
- yingjai, on 05/16/2008, -2/+12I'd have to say because of hardware compatability. Although not perfect, Ubuntu has supported more hardware that I ran it on than other distros (Fedora, Gentoo, etc). The user community is also large, therefore finding help with any problem won't take long. I am still a Windows user because of the games.
- brundlefly76, on 05/17/2008, -1/+11I stuck with Ubuntu because Ubuntu seems dead serious about fixing the most difficult and important problems with Linux from a consumer standpoint.
I think Linux has a long history of pundits brushing aside criticisms of some very unfriendly parts of Linux - its still happens.
Ubuntu is more honest about what parts of Linux still are behind Windows and MacOS - stuff like wireless compatibility and configuration, network configuration dialogs, monitor identification and resolution settings, non-free but very important software, updates, etc.
The one thing about Ubuntu I do not like is that it does not have automated repair tools on the cd like Suse. Bootloader failures are still a major issue with Linux, and you can't leave consumers hanging with a broken bootloader, because its way too complicated for consumers to be fiddling with. - Biznarie, on 05/17/2008, -0/+9Windows has problems (bugs, incompatibilities etc) sometimes and does not work it happens with every OS, but in Linux anybody can fix the problem no need to wait for Microsoft
- TrentDeux, on 05/16/2008, -1/+10I think Ubuntu played center for the lakers in the mid 90's. Was very popular at the time.
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