[Ambassadors] Help me: Fedora vs. Ubuntu

[Nathan Thomas]

On Mon, 2009-05-25 at 23:54 -0500, inode0 wrote:


> How does Ubuntu try too hard to appeal to the masses? Spreading free
> software to the "masses" seems to be a core goal of Ubuntu and, given
> that, they should try as hard as they can to do it.


Thank you John,

I wanted to sit down and reply to this thread at some point when I had a
chance and post something along these same lines. I'm glad that you did
it!

Ubuntu aren't the enemy, nor are they really in competition to Fedora.
We each have a demographic that is quite active and a user-base that is
quite loyal. That is something to be admired in both distributions. I
really rather like the fact that Ubuntu "caters to the masses". In fact,
I've installed it on my mother's laptop as well as my girlfriend's.
Neither of them is really ready for Fedora. The very "closed source"
aspects of Ubuntu I've seen criticised in this thread are same features
that make Ubuntu appropriate for so many people. When my parents call me
and ask about a photo management program, I love telling them to go to
"Add/Remove software, and search for Picasa". It's fantastic.

Now, I understand and appreciate that Fedora can do these things and so
much more, I'm not even trying to say that Ubuntu is better suited to
this task for me. But Fedora isn't for everyone, and I love that. I
think that in trying to be everything to everyone, Windows has become an
Operating System that is truly suited to almost no-one. I wouldn't want
either Fedora or Ubuntu to head down that same path. "Each to their own"
as the cliche goes.

As Izhar recommended earlier: Get your feet wet in Ubuntu if you are
migrating to Linux for the first time. When/if you are ready to move to
something a little more bleeding-edge, then by all means, move to
Fedora. My exception to this would be for tech savvy folk. If I felt the
newcomer to Linux could handle the concept of "Root" and would have the
aptitude/patience/courage to get under the hood of the OS a little, then
I'd endorse Fedora all the way!

Nath.
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