Not bad article on The Sins of (Linux) Ubuntu

From the good folks over at OSNews, a quick rundown of some sticky points when it comes to Ubuntu and Canonical's current modus operandi.

The Sins of Ubuntu
posted by Howard Fosdick on Mon 30th May 2011 22:04 UTC

IconCanonical Ltd., the company behind Ubuntu Linux, estimates that the product has over 12 million users worldwide. And why not? Ubuntu is free and it runs more than ten thousand applications. It has a vibrant user community, websites covering everything you might ever need to know, good tutorials, a paid support option, and more. Yet I often hear friends and co-workers casually criticize Ubuntu. Perhaps this the price of success. Or is it? In this article I'll analyze common criticisms and try to sort fact from fiction.

I should mention that I'm a big Ubuntu fan and have used it for five years. Even so, it pains me to see the obvious ways it could improve. As I'll explain, I believe Canonical's business model holds Ubuntu back from fulfilling its potential.


Why It Matters

One obvious response to anyone who criticizes Ubuntu is to say to them: why don't you just run another operating system? There are so many competing Linux and BSD distros out there.

True. But there is a larger issue here. Ubuntu's great popularity means that it represents Linux to many people. It's the distro vendors pre-install. It's the distro the mainstream media always review. It's the one distro everybody's tried. It's been ranked #1 in DistroWatch's yearly popularity ratings for the past six years (1).

Fair or not, Ubuntu reflects on the Linux community as a whole. How well Ubuntu meets criticisms matters even to Linux users who don't use it.

So what are common Ubuntu criticisms? Here are those I often hear...

Full article can be found here.

Noting hyper earth shattering. Just some very good observations, even though I think Howard Fosdick could have gone a bit further and maybe not pulled his punches quite as much as he does. But I guess you could always get the penguin bashers out there to provide some 'snark' if you feel a craving for vitriol. So maybe a little more rational (and less hostile) a tone makes for a nice change of pace after all...

Worth a read IMO.