Every community has its heroes. From the beginning of time, we've all needed that special something to grasp onto and worship in one way or another. The Linux community is no different. Sure, there are a handful of people known as leaders or visionaries that people look up to, but what other altars do they worship at? The Altar of the Distro. That's the one I'm referring to. According to the DistroWatch page hit ranking sidebar, Ubuntu Linux has held the title of “most worshiped distro” for quite some time now. So why is that? Is it because Ubuntu is just that good? Is it because the Ubuntu followers are just sitting there hitting their browsers refresh button on the DistroWatch Ubuntu page? What is it about Mary?
Personally, I never really saw what everyone else saw, but then again I'm not one to follow trends. I've never been a follower and today is not the day I intend to start. I get the overwhelming impression that Ubuntu is the “flavor of the month” for some strange reason so I've strayed away from it for the most part to see if the hype would die down a bit. Good or bad, I don't need to add to the hype. I review Linux distributions equally and if Ubuntu sucks raw eggs I'm going to tell it to you straight. Granted, I'll get tons of “U SUK! UBUNTU R0x0rz” email (I know this from experience my friends), but the delete key works wonders on those most excellent pieces of entertainment. You've gotta love zealotry. You really do.
The first time I reviewed this distro I was less than impressed. Since I've used Debian for quite a few years on an off I feel I've got a good feel of what it should and should not be. Sure, there are a bunch of Debian derived distros out there, but with the notable exceptions of distros such as Linspire and Xandros, they're all very similar. When I reviewed Ubuntu 5.04 I felt that there really wasn't anything special about it that would really warrant moving from a stock Debian distro to this one. What did it have to offer? As far as I was concerned? Not much at all. It was just another Debian-based distro that did little for me.
Another thing that irked me was the naming scheme they chose to use. I've got to admit it's just short of scary. Those of you who read my 5.04 review will remember my concerns. For those of you who didn't, here's an excerpt:
The first obstacle I had to get by was the naming the developers chose for their releases. I find it amazing that they've gotten so popular with such atrocious branding. This release (v5.04) is called “Hoary” or “Hoary Hedgehog”, which gives me the impression I need to whip out my wallet, pay for services rendered, and hit the confessional in the morning. Taken literally, it means ancient insect eating rodent. Is this any better? Not really. First things first... they need someone to seriously give them proper release names. The current stable release (v4.10) is dubbed “Warty”, which is another discussion entirely.
Ubuntu's current version this time around is called “Breezy Badger”, and I'm not going to even bother trying to decipher that. Recently, it was announced that the next release of Ubuntu would be named “Dapper Drake”... which I believe might translate directly to “gay duck”. Who knows. Either way, it's just plain horrible. Supposedly it's going to be direct competition for Microsoft Windows Vista. Name-wise... yes I'd say so. Both names are bad, but Ubuntu beats Microsoft hands down in the “name only a mother could love” category. Some of my best friends are developers, and very talented developers at that. But let me assure you of one thing: Developers make horrible marketing people. They really do. Good luck getting people to pick up “Dapper Drake” if it's ever to sit next to Microsoft Windows on the shelf. There's really a cold chance in hell a single unit will ever sell outside of geekdom. Just my two cents of course. Take it or leave it, but come one... “gay duck”? Their reasoning: “...It will get even more polish than we put into Breezy, so we think it deserves a name that reflects that polish”. If that's the case, it sounds like they need to keep looking.
Still, the overwhelming community support for this distro lives on... so what's going on? Was I missing something? Since we're about a month away from their next major release I thought I might take a look.
