What makes Ubuntu so popular and on the rise

[Chanchao]

On Mon, 2006-04-24 at 09:22 +0300, OOzy Pal wrote:

> I have no intention behind this question so please don't misunderstand
> me. It is just pure curiosity. Moreover, I am planning to switch from
> Mandriva to Ubuntu and I would like to see the side the people are
> seeing in Ubuntu which I am not.

I think it's mostly non-technical, 'fuzzy' reasons such as trendiness
and Ubuntu being 'new' at the right place at the right time.   Also
there's a good 'vibe' to the community. 

One of the essential things to do when testing a distro is to go to
whatever their support forums are and ask a really dumb question. :) If
people in the community remain supportive and helpful then you've found
a gem. :)

The success is probably in the details. Things like 'less is more',
overall simplicity, stylish, clean appearance, overall absence of
geek-clutter.  

Then the presentation & advocacy of the Ubuntu goals are really well
done, again in a restraint kind of way that's never 'in your face'.  You
almost feel better about yourself using Ubuntu, as if you were doing a
good deed, making merit.. :)

And on a technical level, even though few things about Ubuntu are
bleeding edge cool, 'things just work' and it has 'common sense' written
all over it. There's a lot of appeal in that too, especially for people
who fear Linux is hard to use.  It's a distro that doesn't try to bite
your head off when you first try it, it encourages people no matter how
new or advanced they are about computers/Linux.

Cheers,
Chanchao