Ubuntu is Debian without the headaches (and working on AMD64, Debian still won't say when they'll officially support AMD64, although they do officially support Itanium, which sells about .01% as many chips).
That said, the primary advantage of Ubuntu is the "it-just-works" issue. For most people, particularly so-called "typical" users, Ubuntu works without hassles, and doesn't force them to learn a bunch of new stuff.
You can move a user from Windows to Ubuntu almost without them noticing. I upgraded my older sister's laptop with Ubuntu and it took her 2 days to realize it wasn't Windows.
Now she gets irritated when she has to run Windows (dual-boot) because her employer has custom software that won't run on Linux.
If I had more time, or a spare machine or two, I might run a couple other Distro's (like Suse 10.1, gotta love Compiz/XGL), but for now I need a system that just doesn't require much attention.
==Joseph++
Wagner, Steven G wrote:
> I'm starting to think that Ubuntu is like the windoze of Linux...other than
> being really, really, really easy can anyone tell me why it's better than,
> say, Gentoo, SUSE or Debian? Does it come with magic drivers or something
> you can't get with other distros?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> [mailto:plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Jeff
> Garland
> Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 8:06 PM
> To: Main PLUG discussion list
> Subject: Ubuntu 5.10 to 6.06 Upgrade Experience
>
>
> Small contribution for those Ubuntu users thinking of upgrading to 6.06.
>
> Short story -- I went thru the process today. It was completely
> painless -- it worked perfectly. The upgrade has some really nice
> software upgrades including an upgrade to Firefox 3.5 and Thunderbird
> 3.5. Do it!
>
> Longer story -- I was mostly a Mandrake user for several years (I still
> have a Mandrake machine), but recently I built a new AMD64 machine and
> installed the 5.10 -- 64 bit version of Ubuntu (thx for the prize at the
> dev meeting!). I was a little disappointed since 5.10 had a very old
> version of Firefox. Of course, compared to Mandrake the combination of
> apt and the graphical counterparts, Ubuntu is so, so, so nice to keep
> updated with the latest software. After several nightmares with
> Mandrake upgrades, I was apprehensive, but the major upgrade from 5.10
> to 6.06 didn't disappoint. I can honestly say that this was the easiest
> major upgrade of an OS/Applications ever in my life -- just kicked it
> off, kept working away for about 30 minutes while the downloads were
> going, and then one reboot, and back to business. Sweet.
>
> In case no one noticed, this is a place where Linux has a major lead on
> MS right now -- yes, you can get 64bit Windows, but try to find device
> drivers and applications -- it's tough. On top of that, the idea of
> installing a major OS upgrade and having it automatically upgrade all
> the apps -- well, that just can't happen on Windows. Anyway, many thanks
> to all the folks that made this one fleeting moment of software euphoria
> possible :)
>
> Jeff
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