Ubuntu = The Best Distro In The World -- For No One!

[Collins Richey]

On 8/15/06, Net Llama! <netllama at linux-sxs.org> wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Aug 2006, Collins Richey wrote:
> >> From everything I've read, his "business" plan is two-three fold:
> >
> > 1. He really does want to offer the best community-involved desktop
> > system on the planet. Maybe that's ego driven, but if it works, I'm
> > all for it.
>
> He fails to realize that you can't buy a community.

No one for the most part (other than you and a few others) believes
that he is "buying a community." He's bankrolling the project, but no
one is "buying" the community of users gathered around this product.
Those who like it sing its praises, and those who don't drop off,
pretty much like any other distro, but the ratio of likes to dislikes
is heavily weighted in favor of Ubuntu, and the number of adopters
continues to increase. Obviously these folks have only the loosest of
connections with reality <grin>

>
> > 2. He wants to prove that a Debian-based system can fit into a
> > commercial, "enterprise" server environment. A tough nut to crack,
> > since commercial enterprises want to buy someone to kick around when
> > they haven't got the smarts to make it work. You don't have to
> > convince me that a Debian-based system would be plenty reliable, but
> > the commercial goons won't touch it until they do have someone to kick
> > around. That leads to number three.
>
> HP just announced that they're going to support/ship Debian on their
> servers.  That says something about Ubuntu, although likely not what you
> want to hear.

I'm fine with that announcement. There are lots of Debian servers. The
only thing it says about Ubuntu is that there isn't yet a critical
mass of Ubuntu servers to attract an operation the size of HP. Ubuntu
has done well in the desktop arena, but as a server, well it's too new
and unproven. I would make the same decision myself.

>
> >  "Ubuntu sucks! Shuttleworth sucks!"
>
> Its not any different than your "Ubuntu rocks! Shuttlesworth rocks!"
> mantra.

Surely you have me confused with any number of users on the Ubuntu
forum <grin> Did you even read the immediately following line in my
post?

>
> > I can find plenty of nits to pick with Ubuntu, even though I like it
> > quite well,

That's hardly a mantra. I've tried a lot of distros in the past few
years, and Ubuntu was the easiest to install on my systems. I've
encountered problems with FC, Gentoo, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, CentOS,
RHEL, Debian Etch, and Ubuntu, but I don't go complaining on wide
distribution forums that <pick-a-distro-sucks> and that it's
maintainers/backers are low lifes with little connection to reality.

>
> In case you forgot, I went the 'blessed' route, and got no response from
> the "paid" Ubuntu developers.

I didn't forget. The last word I had from you, you told me that, since
you had worked around the problem, you wouldn't bother going the
"blessed" route (ie actually reporiting/recording  the problem rather
than expecting the developers to be at your beck and (phone)call)
Also, last time I checked, both Red Hat and Novell employ "paid"
developers, but that's ok because they're not the new kid on the block
and they make their money the old-fashioned way by soaking the users
with big fees.

The proof of the pudding will come in a few years. I have no crystal
ball, so I can't predict success or failure, but I can predict that
the STFU posts will continue. I can also predict that you and a few
others will be anxiously awaiting failure.

-- 
Collins Richey
     If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
     of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.