this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I'd add irrational hate against Canonical to the list of possible causes.
systemd was in the hands of one single guy with very controversial ideas in the beginning. It wasn't really better than Upstart, yet got adopted by more and more distributions over time.
Unity worked smoothly when Gnome-Shell was sluggish as hell on the same hardware.
And you have fixed versions every half a year with a set of packages that is guaranteed to work together. On top of that, there's an upgrade path to the next version - no reinstall needed.
Ubuntu's slogan is "Linux for human beings" which fits quite well, I believe. Otherwise, it wouldn't get recommended to newbies so often. If you want all the nerdy stuff, there are plenty of other distributions to choose from. 😉
Thing is, even when Ubuntu's software has been packaged outside Ubuntu, it's so far failed to gain traction. Upstart and Unity were available from a Gentoo overlay at one point, but never achieved enough popularity for anyone to try to move them to the main tree. I seem to recall that Unity required a cartload of core system patches that were never upstreamed by Ubuntu to be able to work, which may have been a contributing factor. It's possible that Ubuntu doesn't want its homegrown software ported, which would make its contribution to diversity less than useful.
Canonical's done a few things that make it quite rational to hate them, though. I seem to remember an attempt to shoehorn advertising into Ubuntu, à la Microsoft—it was a while ago and they walked it back quickly, but it didn't make them popular.
(Also, I'm aware of the history of systemd, and Poettering is partly responsible for the hatred still focused on the software in some quarters. I won't speak to his ability as a programmer or the quality of the resulting software, but he is terrible at communication.)
I've been upgrading one of my Gentoo systems continuously since 2008 with no reinstalls required—that's the beauty of a rolling-release distro. And I've never had problems with packages not working together when installing normally from the main repository (shooting myself in the foot in creative ways while rolling my own packages or upgrades doesn't count). Basic consistency of installed software should be a minimum requirement for any distro. I'm always amazed when some mainstream distro seems unable to handle dependencies in a sensible manner.
I have nothing against Ubuntu—just not my cup of tea for my own use—and I don't think it's a bad distro to recommend to newcomers (I certainly wouldn't recommend Gentoo!) Doesn't mean that it's the best, or problem-free, or that its homegrown software is necessarily useful.