What is the appeal in Ubuntu Linux? Why do people seem to like it so much?

DudeBoyz

What is the appeal in Ubuntu Linux? Why do people seem to like it so much?

To me, it's kind of limiting, as I'm used to more freedom. But some folks are nearly fanatical about it, so I'm curious as to why.

If you could share some insight here, I would appeciate it.

Thanks

DarkFoss

I think it's because it's just well done and easy to use also their forum participation is excellent.Having the backing of a multimillionaire driving developement can't hurt either. Ubuntu does seem have more freedom than say Linspire or Xandros.

Also with Ubuntu's pact with Linspire each consentrating on enhancing 1 desktop both Gnome(Ubuntu) and KDE should really shine on those distros.. plus I think they are going to share access to those desktops so that Kubuntu will use Linspire's KDEand Linspire users will be able to install Ubuntu's Gnome.

Either way it's good news for linux in general.. Dell is thinking about boosting their sales by offering Linux pre-installed on thier comps.. add to that more distro's joining or thinking about joining CNR.. If it becomes concidered a success look for more and more companies to offer a Linux version of their software through such a service. Linux really is on the verge of becoming a viable desktop solution for the masses.

H3X4D3C1M4L

1. Its like Firefox... its the trendy "un-mainstream" way to look rebellious and technically savvy to your mac friends/grandparents/clueless friends
2. Its really easy to get into, good support base
3. The cost is hard to beat

stratcat

I've used Linux since 1995 but only in TUI mode. I've mostly used Red Hat and Mandrake
for web, mail, dns, dhcp servers where it excels. Until recently, I used XP for my day-to-day desktop OS because some of my engineering, audio and video software only
runs in Windows. (No Vista!!!) Last year, I was having trouble with my CNC machine
which was controlled by a Windows program and thought I'd try EMC2, a CNC controller
that runs in Real-time Linux. A live CD was available with EMC pre-installed on Ubuntu
7.0.1. It worked so well and is so configurable, I installed Ubuntu/EMC. Now, I've upgraded
to Ubuntu 8.0.4 and the latest EMC. It just works. I had been doing my drawings in
Corel Draw, exporting to DXF format, then using a program called "Ace" that converts
the DXF files to GCode (the standard CNC programming language), putting the GCode files on a flash drive and taking that to the EMC machine thinking "It sure would be nice
to be able to do everything on the Linux EMC machine". Then I found that Inkscape
exports good DXF files and dxf2gcode to do the conversion. All the while, I'd been playing with various things that come with Ubuntu and added a few things and found
it to be a pretty good desktop OS. Now I dual boot XP and Linux on my home machine
and only have to boot XP when I need to run an electronic circuit simulator or do my
audio/video editing. I'm just used to SoundForge and Vegas. The Linux equivalents,
in my opinion are not quite there yet. Al;so, those two programs are commercial
and quite expensive so they've got the money to make them as good as possible.
I've never had an update go awry or even do anything unexpected. The included and added software - Gimp, Inkscape, Open Office are all superb. Also, before any printers
are installed, you get PDF export from anything that prints. In XP, you'd typically buy
Photoshop, Illustrator, MS Office and Acrobat to get all that functionality. Big Bucks!
And of course, net connectivity. Samba to use Windows shares and printers, NFS
for legacy UNIX file storage, LPR/CUPS for printing to almost anything.
Ubuntu is stable and reliable. I didn't like its brown color scheme but that's easily
changeable.

Sorry this was so long.
Thanks for letting me share my opinions,
Emory

RIV@NVX

My favourite is Ubuntu Studio. Has a great theme and a lot of great apps if you like to play with sound and such stuff.