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Ubuntu Continues to Grab Market Share
slasher writes "MadPenguin.org discusses the future of Ubuntu and confirms Ubuntu's growing market share in the Linux market. Author Matt Hartley writes, "Now, for the biggest question: do high numbers mean that Ubuntu is the best distribution out there? Some will argue that this is an impossible point to make, as each person has different needs from their distribution. But for the sake of this article, we will be considering the average user, not the Slackware crowd, who is obviously much more comfortable within a command line environment than mainstream users."
The next release will be interesting to see. Being a LTS version, I can see it spreading rather quickly and staying there for quite a while. It definitely has had a lot of upgrades since the last LTS flavor.
I think the main reason Ubuntu is doing so well is that it has a consistent and relatively quick release cycle, so it always has the latest drivers/software/utilities and more importantly, it has great package management build on Debian. That was always what I disliked about Debian, that it took way to long for programs to filter down to the stable repos.
Props to you Ubuntu and friends, I look forward to working with you down the road.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
Personally, I've been using Mandriva/Mandrake for about 5 years, and I don't see anything that Ubuntu has that Mandrake didn't have 3 years ago. I'm not sure why Ubuntu is catching all this attention. Maybe I'm missing something really big, but I seriously don't see what makes Ubuntu so much better than Mandriva, or most other desktop oriented distros. I actually prefer Mandriva, because I find that the Admin tools are much better.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
That's the question posed. Well, we only have to look at the market penetration of Windows to know that question is rather meaningless. Ubuntu is a good distribution. "Best distribution" is a bit presumptuous as people who would be interested in a Linux distribution have different needs.
What does average user even mean? For the average Windows user, I'd say Ubuntu would be the best for them without hesitation. For the average Linux user, the question becomes trickier. I don't know that there is a well-defined "average Linux user".
For this particular situation, yes, Ubuntu's popularity does mean it is the best distro. Ubuntu is the first Linux that's had "mass market" appeal, bringing in people from outside the *NIX world, due to its easy of install and use, but also for being "hot" at the right time: when Microsoft is trying to shove a slow, bloated, DRM-filled downgrade called Vista on its users.
So even if Ubuntu isn't ideal for all Linux users, it has the opportunity to greatly increase the Linux user population, bringing more and wider-ranged development to the OS, which will benefit us all regardless of our distro of choice.
No doubt, the (*)Ubuntus are great distros. One thing continues to baffle my mind in the general Linux world:
Why won't the fonts look beautiful by default?
Why, after all these years Linux has existed, do we have to seek help from Microsoft with its fonts in order to have a desktop that is a pleasure to look at?
Why is it that there is still debate as to whether wizzard like setps would be good for the desktop or the server? On this point, a wizzard like setup routine to handle an application like the Apache web server would make things easier for a lot of folks.
What makes me mad is that those who have the skills do do the needful, still refuse to see what seems to be obvious. Time will tell.
This is kind of confusing to me that the excluded the 'Slackware crowd's preferences. If there exist Linux distros that the 'Slackware crowd' prefers (not rhetorical - I really am not aware of Linux user preferences), then isn't there scope for improving the user interface of these distros to make them more accessible to the common user and trump Ubuntu?
Being an Ubuntu user who is also part of the "Slackware crowd" (you insensitive clod!), I think there's also a danger in running too far with the notion that a particular distro suits a particular number of users. I am but one user with multiple tasks to perform; I don't have requirements - my tasks do. I use Slackware on my servers, because I have evaluated it to be the best tool for the jobs I need the platform to do. I use Ubuntu on my desktop workstations because I think it is the best tool for those jobs.
I understand the need for simplification when doing an article like this, and maybe that's why the author just wanted to start by moving pains-in-the-ass like me off the table and stick with ye-average-joes who have perhaps one PC that they use. It drastically limits the complexity of the issue; but it inexorably limits the relevance of the article at the same time.
Running Windows^H^H^H^H^H^H^H OSX and Linux in the home. (I don't have time for Solitaire any more.)
I've been using Linux for about 8 years (desktops and servers) and have tried numerous distributions (Redhat, SuSe, Mandrake/Mandriva, Slackware) as a desktop OS. As far as the desktop goes, here are some things off the top of my head that Ubuntu offers me that other distros did not at the time of my experience with them (which may have been several years ago).
#1: No nonsense software manager. Ubuntu's Add/remove programs system just works. No dependency nightmare, rarely the need for command line, no need to compile/mock around with make files (although I'm comfortable with the process) but if there is the need, the option is there. Don't need to signup to get updates, it just works.
- All of my hardware works. ATI card, LCD (minimum tweak needed to get native res), ipod, firewire card, cellphone through USB, digi cams, cd/dvd writers, etc, etc.
- Relative cutting edge and stable software versions, I don't remember the last time I had x/gnome crash on me.
- Great software selection through their reps.
- Sane directory structure/menus setup.
- Excellent community support / forums.
- Ease of installation (although most distros offered this as well)
Never been happier with a Linux desktop.
[alk]
"Welcome to Slashdot!"
Actually, I liked the article (although I would have preferred it if the claims on market share had been backed up with links -- and not just because it would have made a parody "FreeBSD is Dying" easier to write). The author's underlying thesis is correct: if Linux is going to become a viable alternative for Aunt Tillie, rather than just us Slashdotters, it needs to be as easy for Aunt Tillie to administer as Windows and OS X. Ubuntu's the first beginner-friendly distro that's gained significant mindshare (which is why we all accept the claims of Ubuntu's popularity even without links to the numbers), and in so doing, probably has positioned itself as the most likely beginner-friendly distro to take over that segment of the Linux marketspace. That's an interesting development, and reason to believe that Matt's article won't turn out to be as off-the-mark as Netcraft's FreeBSD report.
...the Canonical distros are nothing special. As a 24-7 sysadmin... I believe your second sentence there identifies you as someone that is not in Ubuntu's primary target audience. I think most Ubuntu users, including myself, will openly admit that regular Ubuntu releases (long-term releases such as 6.06 are somewhat different) are not really intended for mission-critical servers. If I have to spend half an hour rebooting my Ubuntu system at home and fixing the Xorg config file, I'm probably annoyed, but nobody has lost millions of dollars. The same can't always be said for production servers.I've had a much easier time getting my boss to look at it because when I install it, it just works..
All the distributions are like that these days, despite Bill Gate's best efforts.
What you noticed though raises the more important issue. It's not if Ubuntu is gaining share from other distributions, it's if Ubuntu is gaining users from non free software. Once the user goes free they lose their M$ bad habits and blinders and then can move to other distributions without problems.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
You won't like the answer, but it's in TFA.
It's more that Mandriva has something Ubuntu doesn't, something that drives people away. RPM-based distributions are not popular with users. That's because in spite of band-aids like Yum, the user experience for RPM still sucks.
Lots of people have been saying so for years, but the denial in the RPM camp is amazing.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
He's a confusing writer and has confused some points so you sort of get lost in the message. What is really at stake is whether Linux is growing and what distro is the distro driving the Linux growth. I think he's saying Ubuntu is at the expense of the other distros. So, what do you do? Do you politely disagree with him or do you do something about it? Is he just saying Linux is growing or is he saying that you can't grow your user base of new users with the complexity found in some Linux distros (such as Slackware)? Is he trying to drive these more difficult to use distros to accept a more user friendly model?
It doesn't matter who wins the market for Linux. Linux is growing at a very good rate. New and advanced users can and do use it and are very happy, even though some aspects of Ubuntu are left wanting. Unfortunately he doesn't indicate which elements of the distro need attention.
All in all though, on a feature by feature basis for most feature sets Linux does what Vista does and more and is better at doing it even with less powerful hardware. No, I don't want to encourage others to throw older hardware at it. If you can throw as much hardware at Linux as you possibly can. You'll make your life much easier.
There are great things in the world of Linux. The Linux industry is very industrious. We are all benefiting from the opportunities that the industry called Linux is providing the world. With an estimated 100 million Linux users there's potential for every kind of development, including commercial proprietary software such as games.
What the Linux community does need is a solid installer that is cross distro and universal and able to install offline. It also needs much better support for gaming. I use Linux to game and when a game is targetted at OpenGL they play very very very well under Linux. They have advantages that even Windows can't provide due to technical limitations that Windows has. As well, developing under OpenGL opens your market to other platforms, not just Linux--OSX, Windows and Linux are great markets for your OpenGL platform.
Granted Microsoft has used its monopoly power to stint the potential growth of OpenGL (and thus Linux), thus attempting to create another monopoly using that monopoly power. We'll see what happens in the future.
So, get those gaming developers working. Get those universal installer concepts down and get developing. We'll all benefit regardless of which distro holds the lead market share.
Good for Linux. Good for competition. Good for choice. Good for the world.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
I used to run mandrake. It was my distro of coice before ubuntu, and when ubuntu 5.10 or whatever it was hit I gladly left mandrake in the dust. RPM packages are a pain in the ass, and mandrake had this habit of "upgrading" disk encryption tools from release to release that ended up leaving me having to completely redo my encrypted partitions.
But what really did it was the support tools. I tried mandrake, suse, redhat and fedora and ubuntu had the easiest to use support tools. Mandrake's support forums absolutely sucked ass, and the only alternative was to list a request for paid support in their "geek squad." I actually resorted to this once and STILL didn't get an answer.
I rarely use the support forums now, but when I have an issue its usually easy to find help via google. There's this thing called "critical mass" beyond which the money doesnt matter anymore so much as the simple fact "everyone uses it."
I am IT manager, I am so going to base what OS I choose on an article that without the side ads would have equaled a total of a quarter of a page in a real magazine! Wait, I meant a quarter of an eighth of a column. So much for actual content today.
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