Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth on shaking up system software

[JMH]

Free of charge, free of viruses and designed to outpace its rivals on low-end systems - Ubuntu has some obvious advantages.

The operating system claims 20 million people use it a day.
Not an insignificant number, but still a drop in the ocean compared to Microsoft's Windows or Apple's OS X.

Even so, lead designer and one-time astronaut Mark Shuttleworth hopes that last week's major upgrade to the Linux-based project will produce an outsized splash and increase the size of its somewhat divergent customer-base.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17916879#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

 

[GZ]

I had a recent run in with Ubuntu... 12.04 running the unity interface (Wayland). I ended up being annoyed with it (because of quirks in Unity) and quirks interacting with the nVidia proprietary drivers.

The greatest thing about Ubuntu is the sheer size of it's repository... HUGE. I am a fan of the Debian based Linux distro's, but the overall feel of Ubuntu has made me look for alternatives. I prefer Mint (based on Ubuntu).

Decided to install Fedora instead (no proprietary nVidia drivers installed, graphics are good with noveau) and no issues with my dual desktop...

Overall, Ubuntu is a great distro for people who want to install and use an OS with ease. It is one of the easiest to set up and get running.