Hi This isn't exactly a poll but thought that it would be good to know what people would choose if they had to move away from Ubuntu.
Before saying anything i want to put this on record. Ubuntu is one of the best distro's i have ever used. , its ease in installation, responsiveness to multitude of hardware, the incredibly large and varied repositories, the very decent derivatives (Mint, Ultimate etc) . The huge forum and support. Basically i like it very much Over the recent months there has been a lot of chatter about minor and maybe not so minor aspects. First there was the dropping and inclusion of different programmes (e.g. GIMP) not big things but when many small things add up they become to big. Then there is this Ubuntu is not a democracy, Mark Shuttleworth Sounds crazy saying it like that but to read what he had to say check out Mark Shuttleworth: "This is not a democracy" http://www.webupd8.org/2010/03/ubuntu-is-not-democratic.html and some related discussions http://www.osnews.com/story/23039/Kicking_in_Open_Doors_Open_Source_Is_Not_a_Democracy and http://www.itworld.com/open-source/101641/open-source-not- democracy?source=smlynch ** There are many reasons to use Linux and one of them, for me, is not to be told what to do by a corporation. Sure Canonical is not the new M$, i doubt it can ever become that. (hope not) But what makes me uncomfortable is the extent of control Canonical is exerting over its user base. Many Linux folks , now, are first time linuxers changed over from Other OS' mainly because of Ubuntu. So not debating the specifics of Mark Shuttleworth's comments and the reactions and the interpretations, I am getting an uneasy feeling. That maybe just maybe we are becoming Ubuntu dependent and too complacent. I can walk blindfolded through a typical Ubuntu install and its subsequent setup of additional programmes, tweaking programmes to work like they should for me. Knowing what repos to add to get exactly what software and where to source software (tuxwire, zyware). I cannot be happier with what i have. But what if we need to move to a freer system. Are there any other distro's out there. Sure there are 600 plus many of them with a passionate user base and with its attendant problem. My questions are how would people feel about trying out a distro other than Ubuntu (specially first time users), in fact have first time linux Ubuntu users tried other distro's and what do they feel. I started of with fedora 1 and went through a variety and can make another distro do to my bidding. My other question is how many of us dual boot a second linux OS and is your secondary OS as well set as your primary, are you comfortable with it, under all conditions. My 3rd question is what would you suggest people try as a fall back option in case people want to try and alternative. My suggestions are Pardus, Mandriva, OpenSuse, Fedora, Knoppix Others have suggested Arch Linux The few times in the recent past when i tried another distro i very quickly reverted back to Ubuntu, since i was uncomfortable around my system but now i think its worth exploring an alternative in great earnest. look forward to reactions ram -- ubuntu-in mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-in
