What's the advantage of ufw over manually editing iptables directly or firestarter?

[kevdog]

I've run into a bunch of ufw converts...but have a question. What is the main advantage of ufw? It seems like just manually creating a script and feeding it into iptables is the most powerful. Firestarter although basic does provide a nice gui and make Internet connection sharing really easy (in fact its quite simple). Where does ufw fit into this scheme?

[The Cog]

It's a lot easier to understand than iptables. iptables takes considerable effort to understand fully, and many people would rather spend their time doing other things.