Call me stupid for not knowing this, but Ubuntu charges for support. And here, I thought Ubuntu followed every aspect of the Debian infrastructure and philosophies. I was way wrong.
Looking at the Debian GNU/Linux distro, I am having a hard time seeing why I should stay with Ubuntu and not make the move to Debian. There are really only a few things I can think of, but they are the reasons I stay.
First, Ubuntu really is Debian made easy. Installing software is a bit easier than a standard Debian system, and installing the OS is far better than the text-based installer with Debian.
Next, Ubuntu is at least cutting edge compared to Debian-stable. Correct me if I am wrong, but Ubuntu is more like Debian-testing than anything. It really isn’t Debian-unstable, because some software I have to wait until the next release to get, and it definitely isn’t Debian-stable as I do get the most recent upgrades on a majority of packages.
Third, Ubuntu is release every six months on schedule, no ifs ands or buts. I don’t have to wait three years for the next stable release. Debian lost a large portion of its user base between woody and sarge, because of what seemed like a lack of interest in getting sarge stable. The excuse is redesigning the installer, but I think it stems to something deeper. The installer is again being reason for the wait on releasing etch. I guess we’ll see.
Fourth, and most important, the community is a rock soid community. Not a bunch of idealogists or people on political soap boxes. The people are just people trying to get their system to work they way they want. Visit http://www.ubuntuforums.org to see what I mean. For the most part, you won’t find people putting the new users down because they don’t understand the simple stuff. Yes, you find this quite a bit in the Debian forums, as well as Slackware and Gentoo.
Lastly, it just works. Debian just works too, but Ubuntu gives the necessary fluff to attract the users that will be responsible for the dethrone of Windows. Debian gives the user rock solid stability, but still keeps the OS hard enough to keep the Windows converts away but easy enough to use. Ubuntu is just easy to learn and use.
I guess in a nutshell, I am not too upset that Ubuntu offers commercial support. Commercial/paid support will attract businesses, and pour more money into the project. It just surprised me, because I thought Ubuntu was Debian, just with it’s own hacks and implementations. I guess it’s a lot more than that.
{ 2 } Comments
Aaron,
I am a huge fan of Debian, which is the rock upon which Ubuntu is built. Let me try to convince you that Ubuntu is not your standard commercial entity, and in fact it is worthy of your time and continued contributions.
When Mark Shuttleworth created Canonical (the company that does the lion’s share of work on Ubuntu, including the free shipit CDs), he did not go into it with the idea of making a profit. Ubuntu is one of Mark’s ways of giving back to the world. Canonical does offer commercial support, because this is what many business require before using a piece of software.
However, Canonical does not try to corner the support market, in fact they encourage other companies to offer support, particularily in the local areas. Canonical cannot provide on-site services to the entire planet, so they publish a page on the Ubuntu website which lists other businesses that provide commercial support for Ubuntu.
Ubuntu Marketplace
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/marketplace?action=show&redirect=support%2Fsupportoptions%2Fmarketplace
I have been very impressed by Mark Shuttleworth’s and Canonical’s spirit of giving, community, and lack of commercial interests. This behavior is totally unheard of in this day and age, which makes it all the more refreshing. Go Ubuntu!
Tristan Rhodes
Thanks Tristan. You are the one who got me hooked on Ubuntu to begin with when you first showed if off at the LUG meeting. I was a diehard SuSE and KDE fan. Since that meeting over a year ago, I haven’t looked back. Ubuntu, IMHO, is as sexy as Mac OS X, and more fun to play with than other distros.
I have no problem with the commercial support. In fact, I applaud it. It just took me by surprise, that’s all. I also applaud Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical for their continued commitment to Ubuntu.
So again, thanks Tristan.
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