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by **JoeDude** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:47 pm

OK, why? What is it really that makes a distro more popular than the next? I have been doing a lot of surfing about Debian (More particularly, Ubuntu) and it seems more and more are using it...

I'll admit, the ease of it's use has tickled me purple. I'll even admit to having an enjoyable experience with it. But, what is it that makes these distros jump ahead of each other for a while...It seems a cycle to me that constantly loops around a few distro's.

by **Jenda** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:55 pm

Oh that's a sure thing. It's because of the well organised, coordinated, powerful marketing Ubuntu has. Only the precise and well thought-through actions of the Ubuntu Marketing Team allow the distribution to proliferate to uncounted masses of now-dedicated users, only the dead-effective techniques enforced thereby have the prowess to convince the millions of Joe Users to begin using Ubuntu... not.

But we try

And we hope to make it even better. It is called the most popular distribution, but that's not good enough.

Bug #1 is what we're after: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/1

The truth is the Marketing Team is very young, and is struggling to get well organised and become effective. It's primary project is Spreadubuntu: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam/SpreadUbuntu , of which I am the leader. I'll be gone for a month now, so it might stall for a bit. I aim to have the site up by the end of August, and will do my best to get that accomplished.

--Jenda

by **Void Main** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:03 pm

Well, I would say "Debian" is the most popular distro because it is the basis for so many other distros (including Ubuntu). I actually prefer Debian (plain old real debian) to any other distro out there. It's a wonder why I don't use it as my primary everything OS (that could change at any time). I say the reason that Debian is so popular is two fold. 1) Ease of installing software (apt) and 2) number of available software packages. Actually there are many other things about Debian that makes life easier but I think those are the two that poke you in the eye. Everything should be based off of Debian if you ask me. I really gotta shake my Fedora habit. :)

by **JoeDude** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:49 pm

Microsoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace. This is a bug, which Ubuntu is designed to fix.

Microsoft has a majority market share | Non-free software is holding back innovation in the IT industry, restricting access to IT to a small part of the world's population and limiting the ability of software developers to reach their full potential, globally. This bug is widely evident in the PC industry.

Hehe...that was good! I particularly like the whole posted conversation bits :lol:

by **Master of Reality** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:21 pm

The debian installer confuses and enrages me. I'm not really sure how i got through it when i installed Debian on my server.

by **Void Main** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:43 pm

Master of Reality wrote:The debian installer confuses and enrages me. I'm not really sure how i got through it when i installed Debian on my server.

How could a "slacker" *possibly* be confused by the Debian installer??? :) I don't think the installer is all that bad. They're coming out with a new graphical version for you guys that are confused by the traditional version. In fact I think it's ready now but I haven't given it a try.

EDIT: A review on the GUI installer: http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=05/11/17/1825228

by **Master of Reality** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:20 am

I much prefer the slackware installer.

For some reason (maybe one of the repos was down) but i couldnt resolve the dependencies to install it using the network install. The problem was i couldn't not install the packages that needed the missing dependencies because of more dependencies and you know how that goes.

I ended up installing off of CDs or DVDs instead of over the net.

by **Void Main** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:11 am

The installer itself isn't really of huge importance to me since I only ever install a system once. After that it's all apt.

by **moto526** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:02 pm

As a long time windows user and new to the linux world I can tell you the two main things to me...

#1 Easy to use
#2 Looks good

These may sound silly to you long time linux users but really that is what I expect in an OS... I really liked Fedora and I was getting used to installing programs in a terminal but I seen screen shots of Ubuntu and didn't think twice about the switch.

My other distro of choice is Suse but I don't think it is as easy to use as they say it is... Setting up shares and conecting to windows machines is a bit of work in Samba that I don't think is going to be very exciting to long time windows users.

As a part time windows user I will say that linux is looking more and more of a better option because of all the bloat that windows comes with. Most of the people I talk to are really getting tired of some of the stuff comming out of Microsoft. Vista is not going to go over very well because everyone is going to have to upgrade hardware, that is just stupid!

by **Void Main** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:21 pm

moto526 wrote:I really liked Fedora and I was getting used to installing programs in a terminal but I seen screen shots of Ubuntu and didn't think twice about the switch.

You don't have to install programs in a terminal in Fedora but you can if you want. I personally prefer it that way and I install software on Ubuntu in exactly the same way, using apt on both. But this is true for almost all distros, you can install from a shell or via a graphical app. It's also odd picking a distro because of screen shots as they all run the same software (GNOME, KDE, etc) and can all be made to look exactly the same very easily, unless you just like the way it is customized out of the box and never plan on customizing anything yourself. I don't know many people that leave the out of the box settings. Really, Ubuntu is just Debian with some personalization but that may make it look more appealing to some people.

by **moto526** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:58 am

Yep and that is the point...

Windows users don't change Icons and all that like Linux users do... I really like the look of everything in Ubuntu and that is what attracted me. Suse also looks so sweet!

I think most users want a fresh new look and that is something Ubuntu is giving them... Fedora is GREAT no question about it but the lcons look old and the feel is still old.

I know, I know that most linux users could care less about the look and I see that some of you don't even use a gui in some cases but most people like a nice clean, good looking desktop... Sitting in front of this thing all day has to be some what enjoyable.

Look at mac they have a sweet looking os!

by **Void Main** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:10 pm

But I do have a nice clean desktop sitting in front of me. In fact I make my desktops look exactly the same in all the distros I run (Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE, Gentoo, etc). Like I said, the same desktops run on all of them and they all can be easily made to look/act exactly like the other with very little trouble. I also beg to differ with you on the Windows users not personalizing their desktops. In fact I can't remember ever running across a Windows user who didn't customize their desktop to their liking.

by **Master of Reality** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:15 pm

i havent customized my Microsoft Windows desktop its the same as the day i installed.... although i've only ever used it for two applications (one being Morrowind) and haven't booted it in several months.

On the other note, I always make my desktops different... it helps remind me that im on my desktop and not laptop or vice versa. Also the performance of my machines varies so I wouldnt use some of the fancier display effects on the slower ones.

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