Ubuntu Linux: Free and Fabulous

First off, my thanx to Mark Shuttleworth for the money, time and energy he is putting into Linux. Now make it easy for my Mom. Thats right, Make the multimedia and software installation as easy as windows. "Easy" means a double-click installation, not synaptic or apt-get at the command line (which is admittedly pretty easy). That blinking cursor at the shell scares nOObs away. It's the new user stupid. (K)Ubuntu is beginning to go in the right direction, that is as long as they don't completely bork the debian effort (you there devnet?). It's good but not that good. I see a branding phenomenon happening with this distro, nothing more...just a flavor of the month. New user migration is the future of Linux...if that is not accomplished, then it will remain a hobbiest's toy.

helios

helios - if you go to http://distrowatch.com/ you will see it as the leading Linux distribution (and growing) hitting that site. I have been visiting there for a short time, however, during that period it both held it's lead and continued to grow each day while both Mandrakia or Man(whatever - the distributions I use) (sorry the site ate my "arrow head and tail" losing some meaning - edited 4/26 9pm EDT) and Fedora are fading.

That does not change the fact that it is not the best linux distro available. Unfortunately, we in the US are a "branded" society...those who package and advertise their product in the most attractive manner get the sales. I realize that these figures indicate world-wide use, but the US is more than likely a substantial contributor. I'm not saying that (K)Ubuntu is not a good distibution nor am I saying it is not gaining popularity by leaps and bounds...I am saying I do not believe it is accomplishing these things on its own merit. I believe we are seeing a herd mentality here. Maybe I'm wrong...like this would be the first time. Furthermore, my compatriot Devnet raises an interesting point concerning Ubuntu's impact on debian. I can see where the popularity of this distro could cause major fragmentation in the Linux community. Note: That would be a bad thing.

helios