[ Ubuntu-BD ] Hate Ubuntu? It's normal!

[Raihan Hasnain]

If you believe online forums and blogs, Ubuntu must be the most hated  
Linux distribution on earth. Not only is it funded by a millionaire  
space tourist and aggressive capitalist, it also exists (according to  
another Linux company's CEO) for the sole purpose of destroying all  
other distributions that exist on the market. It is reportedly a  
parasite that takes all the code from Debian without contributing much  
back and despite all its "software for humanity" talk, it keeps  
developing proprietary software solutions (e.g. Launchpad). Mark  
Shuttleworth's recent suggestion to synchronise distribution releases  
in order to coordinate bug-fixing work was greeted with a suspicion  
that he merely wants "to benefit from a lot of work that Novell and  
Red Hat are already doing in the enterprise space." So what makes  
people dislike and mistrust Ubuntu so much?

I don't think it's specifically Ubuntu that many people have a problem  
with. Throughout the history of our coverage of distributions here at  
DistroWatch, it was always the top one that some readers appeared to  
dislike most. If you've been around in the early parts of this decade,  
you might remember that Mandrake Linux went through similar pains - it  
kept getting a high number of reviews, but it also attracted more than  
its fair share of negativity on user forums. Interestingly, now that  
it acts from the position of an underdog, it has suddenly become the  
darling of the distro world, with excellent products and barely any  
criticism - but also hardly any reviews. It is the same as when a  
group of unbiased spectators watches a sporting contest between a  
clear favourite and an unfancied underdog - they will undoubtedly  
support the latter with all their might! It's the human nature.

The fact that many people dislike the top distribution is not really a  
problem. The problem is that many of these folks are extremely vocal  
on the Internet to express their opinions. While no intelligent reader  
will ever take them seriously, they do give the Linux community a bad  
name and discourage potential Linux users from joining us. Can  
anything be done about this? Not much, it seems. Until people start  
reading their own posts and realise that senseless negativity towards  
the most popular distribution is counter-productive, we will have to  
live with the unfortunate fact that the top dog will always be the  
most hated one too - at least in the more immature and destructive  
circles on the Internet.


Source: Distrowatch