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The Secret Lives of Ubuntu and Debian Users
jammag points out a look at statistics from the Popularity Contest projects on Debian and Ubuntu. These projects track the download and upgrade habits of their respective distributions' users, revealing — no surprise here — that Ubuntu users are more likely to be newbies than Debian users. The numbers reveal, for instance, that 86 percent of Ubuntu machines use the proprietary NVidia driver, where only a mere sliver of Debian machines do. Likewise, Debian users are far more eclectic in their software choice, less likely to use any default options. The article concludes with a look at the limits of what conclusions can be drawn from statistics like these. "In general, Debian users seem more eclectic in their use of software than Ubuntu users, and less likely to use an application simply because it is included by default. Debian users also seem more likely to be concerned to maintain a free installation than Ubuntu users — a conclusion that is hardly surprising when you consider Debian's reputation for freedom, but is still interesting to see being supported by statistics. ... To what extent last week's figures are typical is uncertain. Very likely, studying the figures over a longer period would produce different results. Possibly, too, those who participate in the Popularity Contests are not typical users of either Ubuntu or Debian. "
Seriously, do you /really/ want to know what they do behind closed doors?
Because I certainly don't.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
Using the proprietary nVidia driver makes you a "newbie"? When you consider that the open-source driver doesn't fully support a lot of modern cards (last I checked, everything from the 8-series on), and provides inferior performance to the proprietary one on most of the cards it does support, I'd have to wonder how you figure people who haven't yet replaced the included driver aren't the "newbies." Or perhaps it's buying nVidia cards that makes you a "newbie"? Real nerds use Intel GMA 900s!
Even though I won't use a sackcloth-and-ashes-free-only computer, those issues are important. "Pragmatism" in the short term is anything but in the long term. If effort isn't exerted to keep platforms from being closed and replacements developed for things that are closed but commonly used then eventually it will be others who dictate how you compute and what sort of computing is permissible. Myself, I prefer to own my own media and hardware and to connect (ethically) to whatever machines on the Internet I see fit, use whatever protocols I see fit, and adapt any device I own to any purpose that I might desire. Annoying as they may often be, we ignore the proponents of openness and freedom at our peril.
> Debian users are far more eclectic in their software choice, less likely to use any default options.
When most of your experienced users think your default options are crap and refuse to use any of them, perhaps it is a good time to change those defaults, eh?
Agreed. I've also been using Linux since the mid 90s. I think people underestimate how much even experienced users appreciate a slightly more polished and easy-to-user product.
I love Linux and would still use a raw distribution if I really had to. However, the fact that Ubuntu has an effective GUI, updates "just work" and that installing new software is so easy is a massive bonus. Now I can get on with actually getting my work done rather than dicking about with configuration files and Make for hours.
The numbers on the official NVidia driver must be skewed. When using Debian, I've found it far easier to download the installer from nvidia.com rather than through apt-get, which would bypass the whole Popularity Contest project, I think.
Ah, but does it give you the ability to be a smug about your choice of computer software?
I think not.
Everybody else sits in their parents' basement eating Cheetos and masturbating to Japanese tentacle porn?
What an insulting thing to say! I don't even like Cheetos, let alone eat them.