Ubuntu has a lot going for it. A rich benefactor cum space tourist, a huge and rapidly growing user base, a sleek look and an easy install. So why is it the best in Linux operating systems? Simply put, it’s not. That’s right, Ubuntu is not the best Linux distro.
Is that a strange concept coming from a die-hard Ubuntu user like myself? Let me explain a bit. I’ve installed Ubuntu on three of my laptops, and at least five desktops that are in use by me. I use it as a server, a filer, a desktop system and my laptop’s primary OS. I’ve also deployed it to a number of faculty, staff and graduate students at a prestigious, ivy league university. The reaction I’ve gotten from users who run the gamut from temporary staff assistants to CS professors who teach kernel hacking has been overwhelmingly positive.
I’ve also worked in many other distros, including Debian, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Red Hat, CentOS, IBM’s AIX, Suse, Knoppix, Damn Small Linux, LinSpire, Mandrake/Mandriva, DesktopBSD and for a period of several months, Linux From Scratch. That’s a bunch of different distros and each of them have their high points and their low points. Technically some aren’t even Linux (the BSD systems). Some are ultra-configurable. So configurable in fact (LFS) that you have to compile everything from scratch. Some are not very flexible on the surface (RH, CentOS, Ubuntu, LinSpire) and come with much sleeker installs and a larger base of premade packages ready for install.
Let’s face it though, they’ve all got a kernel under their hood and a bunch of applications and daemons that run on top if it. Eye candy is optional. User experience varies as much as the users available. The most complex distro to install, arguably Linux From Scratch, can look ultra slick and extremely polished. I’ve also seen some god-awful looking Ubuntu installs out there.
The point I’m moving toward here is that there is no best in Linux. There’s options. Configurability, ease of install, control over your outward appearance, control of the inner workings of your machine. What will translate into a good user experience for those in the Linux community differs throughout our community. Some favor complexity and control, others favor minimal configuration and ease of use. Many of us use Linux not only to accomplish tasks on our computers but to learn more about the inner workings of our computers.
So why is Ubuntu becoming so popular with many, and so overdone with some? It’s got several things going for it that have pushed it into the realm of the public conscious and past the eyes and ears of Linux hackers and so-called hobbyists.
First, Ubuntu has an astronaut. Seriously. There’s something glamorous about a person who’s looked down at the Earth from a place only an extremely small fraction of the human race will be. When that person who’s attained this almost mythic position in our collective conscious then says something to the effect of “hey, I’ve got an idea!” lots and lots of people listen. Even when that idea has to do with something complex like an operating system or something hard to market, like an operating system that’s not Windows or OSX.
Second, it doesn’t hurt that this astronaut paid his way into space with his petty cash. There’s a lot to say for a rapid launch and good development when the specter of the bill collector isn’t hanging over your shoulder.
Third, it was a good idea. Make an operating system that’s based on proven technology (the Linux kernel and the Debian distro) and then make it so easy to install that my brother-in-law can do it and he can cause a toaster to go into complete system failure. Take all of the complexity that seems to lay on the surface of Linux and bury it under a layer of GUI goodness and menus.
That right there is what started the popularity of Ubuntu skyrocketing and is also the very point that niggles some *nix users. But it’s a sound strategy. Hell, it worked for Microsoft and Apple and I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work for Linux. The biggest difference here is cost. As in, there isn’t any to go out and get an Ubuntu CD shipped right to your door. That’s amazing. It’s revolutionary and it’s working quite well.
In fact, there’s only three reasons why I still have Windows installed on my laptop. The license was purchased by my employer, I need to support users on it, and I like playing Medieval: Total War. Other than that, I can do anything I would normally do in any other OS in Linux. And more specifically in Ubuntu.
Yes, you may be sick of hearing about Ubuntu. Yes, we who know a little about the Linux world know that it’s based on Debian and that Linux is a kernel, not an OS. However, Ubuntu is doing things that are making Linux really, really accessible to the average user. The people who think of computers as smaller, more expensive radios or televisions. Computers have been marketed as appliances, not complex tools. When Jane or Joe average user buy a computer, they expect to turn it on and go - and their expectations have been set by the pay-per license OS makers we all know and love, Microsoft and Apple.
Ubuntu brings Linux a lot closer to this expectation. I’ve watched novice computer users install Ubuntu. I’ve seen everything that’s needed to check email and surf the web just work. The only place I feel Ubuntu is lacking for the new user is it’s support for 3rd party codecs out of the box. They do things the legal way and that can make it tougher on the new user. That’s the one area where I generally take over after the install and show them how to get video, dvd and mp3 playback working.
That’s also a complaint I hear from seasoned computer users. Some of the programs they expect to find in a Linux distro aren’t present. Such as a C compiler or Make.
Ubuntu is really designed as a desktop OS. A replacement for Windows and to a much lesser extent OSX. As such, most desktop users will never need or want to write a program or compile something from source. Not including ‘extra’ software also alows Ubuntu to keep their install to 1 CD, allowing the internet to handle new packages and updates. Remember that a lot of this functionality is not needed by the average computer user. However, being a Linux distro, these utilities are not hard to track down and install on your computer.
Is Ubuntu for everyone? Absolutely not. In the Linux user world there are just as many reasons to use another distro as there are users who use other distros.
Is Ubuntu a great choice for users who don’t want to know a whole lot about computers, are new to Linux or like myself, enjoy ease of use? Yes it is.
geek out.
September 26th, 2006 at 10:20 am
I totally agree on most points you have pointed out about Ubuntu. I too is an avid Ubuntu user and I think the main reason Ubuntu is so successful is how easy it is to use. It is just totally dumb down. Could we say Linux for dummies? Another plus factor is the free shipping of the original printed cd…no more downloading and burning from a blank disk. Having a charismatic astronaut as leader of Ubuntu did help too
September 27th, 2006 at 12:34 am
I tried it for a day, but it couldn’t play audio out of the box and I couldn’t figure such out, and as I recall some Flash sites wouldn’t work either. I have now switched to Xandros 4, but the same problem with flash and various other plugings that don’t work right if at all, fonts not showing up all over the place, and a cd burner the puts songs onto cds where 1/4 of them sound like Alvin n the chipmunks. When will linux just come up with a version of it where it all just works? DVD player, CD burning, MP3 playing, video watching online, and yes - flash?
I was no more impressed with Ubuntu out of the box as you say then I was with Mandriva. Xandros is okay, but as stated still has some big issues with it. Just not as many as the rest I guess…
September 27th, 2006 at 4:24 am
Most people use Ubuntu for two reasons:
- They don’t know linux and UBuntu is getting (a bit) popular.
- They know linux and know that its community are great.
I’m in the second point. I don’t think Ubuntu is “the best distro”, but I realize that, if I have a problem, there’s 4 people in internet that have had the same prblem in Ubuntu, and it’s easier for me fix that error. It’s not a question of “quality”, it’s about the people who is behind Ubuntu.
September 27th, 2006 at 5:29 am
Ubuntu is a great OS, but did you ever tried Zenwalk ?
Maybe you’d be surprised how faster it is
Cheers
John
September 27th, 2006 at 6:59 am
To me is doesn’t matter much which distribution I run. They are all more or less the same. The only reason I dropped Mandriva and started with Ubuntu was that I was getting annoyed with the way the favorized their club members.
Whether the default CD comes with or with out compilers is not essential to me either. The repositorys are as big as any other distribution and will get the from the net any way. For the same reason it would be great if there were a netinstallation CD available for Ubuntu.
BTW - This page is broken in konqueror, only the headlines are shown!
September 27th, 2006 at 7:50 am
Hey all, thanks for the comments.
A couple of points:
1. I agree with Thomas and Cumic. Under the hood, these distros follow several basic models. Once you start understanding the basics, you can navigate through any of them. But, Ubuntu has a huge base of new and practiced users who’ve probably been through any problem you have and (hopefully) have found a solution.
2. The Barthelme theme should be fully WC3 compliant. Unfortunately, not all browsers are. Hopefully newer releases in the future will correct these problems for konquerer, and IE. I’m also starting to look at a few other themes which may work better with existing browsers.
September 27th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
I’d have to disagree with you on the new user aspect. I’d love to debate it with you as well point for point.
September 27th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Are you saying that the new users I’ve installed have not had a good experience? Or that Ubuntu is the best distro out there?
September 27th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
I just switched over from Fedora to Ubuntu, and, yes, Ubuntu is very easy to use….Than again, I´ve already been using linux (FC) for six years, so I´m not a totally clueless newbie (just partially clueless).
Yum kept breaking stuff on FC. So far, I am really digging Kubuntu.
I thnk the FC install was easier ,in the respect that a new user can just choose what he wants to add on install, rather than have to digging through repos to find stuff. Of course, Synaptic makes that pretty easy, but not any easier than say YumEx…Of course, yum break stuff.
So far, apt hasn´t broken anything for me.
And the U community have been very welcoming.
I like it here.
I would recommend Kubuntu.
Takes some getting used to sudo instead of a separate root account…that kind of actually makes me nervous, but I think I´ll get over it.
September 28th, 2006 at 12:16 am
>The Barthelme theme should be fully WC3 compliant. Unfortunately, not all browsers are.
Well, it clearly isn’t: “Failed validation, 85 errors”. All of my text browsers (lynx, links(2) and w3m) and Konqueror failed to render the page.
September 28th, 2006 at 8:14 am
I can’t believe I’m typing this… but lynx works fine with ArsGeek from two of my computers.
Obviously it has trouble with some of the CSS stuff but it just plonks it down at the bottom of the site.
Lynx. I like my web with pictures.
September 29th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
The success of Ubuntu isn’t only because it is for dumb users(easy to use), but also because It’s debian-based.. that means:
- a lot of software packaged in debs
- very up-to-date
- an a real interest for Desktop users, that it doesn’t mean a cool distro that brokes after the first update.
February 1st, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Ubuntu is as easy or as complex to use as you want it to be. If you like control then uninstall all the packages with apt or dpkg and compile from source if that is your thing like I did recently to remove unwanted packages and customize the ones I wanted. As a programmer myself I like total control. You can make it as complicated to use as Linux From Scratch if not more. Its Linux for God’s sake. You have control of everything if you know what you are doing. Installing eye candy is optional no one is pushing it down your throats. The one thing I like about it is that I can install it and give it to my parents and they couldn’t care less which OS I give them as long as they can surf the net and write emails yet I can customize the packages beyond recognition to achieve maximum control.
All Linux distros give you total control. The question should be “who has the nerve to compile, install and configure from scratch?” to find their desired level of control.
February 14th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Started with Ubuntu and ended with SabayonLinux (the official distro of Beryl), it blows Ubuntu (and Vista) away…..
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:29 am
SabayonLinux does NOT blow Ubuntu (or any other distro) away. I tried it for a while, and it is too top-heavy. Also, I was getting video problems when running beryl. I don’t know if that’s a common problem or something fixed, but…it happened no matter the video player whenever I had beryl settings enabled. And it’s definitely not my computer:
AMD 64 3000+
2gig dual-channel pc3200
600+watt battery
~200GB IDE WD HD
6800 GT-OC (BFG style)
but if you don’t play videos on your Linux distro you might be ok. Also if you don’t mind the extra unnecessary programs, etc.
March 25th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I tried Ubuntu 7.4 Beta, the latest x86_64. It started the OS from CD, I was looking for how to install, then I saw install Ubuntu on desktop. Certainly it detected my mother board with ATI chip set correctly, even set correct resolution and sync frequency for my 19″ lcd monitor. It installed all drivers correctly including sound. Thats what I call a good linx, pats the ubuntu penguine.
But, yes, yes, the desktop is not that easy, with two task bar. So I played around a bit, and reduced the task bar to just 1, with a workspace switcher and removed a few un-necessary buttons. It just rocks.
ubuntu, needs to set the task bar right!
Regarding installed software, my primary purpose was C/C++ development. So, had a bit time installing libraries, Kdevelop, Anjuta, compilers, C++ compilers and packages and so on.. they need to create a dummy package for C/C++ dev tools
Also installed eclipse.
So overall, the experience was the package manager, just ultimate, it gets all packages to install, also finds the fastest mirror to download. The next best thing is automatic updates, just ulitmate.
When I compared this to latest SUSE 10.2, it just didnt install at first, also troubles with drivers and monitor. It just didn’t set my monitor standard frequency of either 75 or 60 but 73. So if you are going for a lighter working linux UBUNTU is some what best. Just have to play around a bit to make it like Windows.
July 5th, 2007 at 1:48 am
Well, Ubuntu had caught my eye, and I prefer it more than Vista. When you enable the desktop effects, you would really enjoy the smooth operation and all eye candy stuff.. it is all Beryl can offer, or even more. And moreover, my i915 chipset, which refused to run Aero in Vista (which is perfectly running on my i965 chipset desktop with a 4.5 rating) can easily run these desktop effect surprisingly smoothly. I must say that Ubuntu is the best alternative to Linux for desktops/laptops. I think people who don’t like Ubuntu have’nt experienced the new Desktop effects…
September 7th, 2007 at 4:58 am
>When you enable the desktop effects, you would really enjoy the smooth operation and all eye candy stuff.. it is all Beryl can offer, or even more.
“Ubuntu desktop effects” *IS* Beryl/Compiz Fusion. You can run Beryl/Compiz on any computer with Linux.
November 19th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
@sanji_rath: Ubuntu uses the Gnome desktop environment as it’s default. There are other distributions of Ubuntu that uses other environments like kUbuntu (uses the KDE desktop environment).
November 29th, 2007 at 12:41 am
To decide what’s best distro, in XOOCO Lists have a list to vote the people:
http://xooco.com/fitxers/mostraLlista.php?visivilitat=publica&nomLlista=What+Linux+distribution+do+you+prefer%3F&passUsuari=
ANd you, What Linux distribution do you prefer?
February 1st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
ubuntu- ultimate is a ubuntu based fully loaded distro,
that unlike regular ubuntu actually automatically installs the
proprietary codecs for video, etc.
I think it was written by different individuals mostly, or tweaked a little better
to run more like something thats actually useful.
trust me try it, search ubuntu ultimate ,yes they have a web site.
like i said though, its not a distro made from the ubuntu people, i think this is
totally seperate.
February 12th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I dont think Ubuntu is the best distro out there nor the easiest…. I think it all depends on the user and the hardware… I found PCLinux OS far eaiser on my machines… It even plays MP3’s and all the virtually all the video codecs right from install… Seemed more functional without being too dumbed down… One other thing i dont like bout Ubuntu is that it disables root and i dont trust sudo command think it could get your average could get into just as much trouble with messing something up as in windows… I still think red Hat makes one of the better distros… Also another good one i would recommend would be gentoo
May 21st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I don’t know if Ubuntu is the easiest distro, but it is easy to use, Linux based systems are more reliable and more stable than Microsoft’s Windows (to an extent), e.g. Windows NT and 2000 were the first windows systems to have real security, windows ME and earlier at the login screen you could just hit Esc and it logs you in as a default user and unrestricted. And unlike windows, free software for ubuntu is damn easy to find.
And I agree with John ” I think it all depends on the user and the hardware… “
June 18th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Yeah… as Jzwies say, I try many linux distro and find Ubuntu have solid community to help me if I got a problem.
June 19th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Installed Ubuntu 8.04 2 days ago. Really liked the looks of it and all that. I’m a complete novice when it comes to linux distros and Ubuntu was the one I knew was rather user-friendly. Anyways, got it working, was really surprised how everything worked. Anyways, didn’t try to install anything(mostly because I didn’t know how to :D) and just tested the programs already integrated, everything was just fine.
Later installed wine, got my mIRC running which I was really used to and didn’t wanna give it up.
The first problem I had was with updating Pidgin from 2.4.1 to 2.4.2. It gave me errors after ‘configure’. Ok, left it alone for a day.
The next day my friend(a linux user) told me to get the XMMS player which he thought was a lot better than the one integrated(and it looked like Winamp?). Anyways, tried to install it - problems. Ok, I didn’t have the Make and stuff. Got those. Tried again, wanted GLIB, ok, got GLIB, couldn’t install it, needed gettext. Ok, got gettext, installed it, everything seemed fine. Got back to installing GLIB, got it installed, was amazed. Tried XMMS again and after ‘configure’ it said no GLIB was installed. Thought maybe it will work if I try installing Pidgin… Well, it didn’t.
Got pissed off, restarted the PC hoping it will somehow make it better. Ran ubuntu and suddenly I have no desktop. That’s right, no icons, no picture, couldn’t even right-click on it. The media partitions didn’t open either.
Now here I am using WinXP again, should I try again?
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Yeah Degwees try again, i had trouble with Ubuntu the first time i tried it, i messed aroudn with some configs trying to learn the linux ways and switched to another distro Opensuse 11 for a few months, but it got slow on me and started being real laggy switched back again to Ubuntu just yesterday, switched all effects off, installed them just incase i need them in the near future but shut everything off configured everything correctly and my computer is running as never before. Something new i noticed this time is that it recognizes my ipod right out of the box which is a breath of fresh air, before you had to configure all this stuff to get it to work with amarok. BUt it works perfectly real smooth.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I just switched over to Ubuntu 8.04. I have to say I am semi impressed. As a Windows user for my entire life (19 years), I’m still have trouble with installing things and getting everything running as smooth as say XP or (dare I say it) Vista. The only problem I seem to have is every place I look for information gives me the run around. If anyone can give me a good site for Noo… well not noobie as I have using computer since I was 7 and Building them since I was 10. I just need a place with tutorials and such. These noobie site have too hand holding. I just need someone to give me some valid information that isn’t dumbed down. Oh and one more thing I was wondering if anyone knows how I get some ZUNE support. I dont want to keep windows installed just to keep my zune updated. I’ve tried the Virtual Box and it doesnt recognize my USB devices so thats no good… Thanks for all the help