What are the main reasons for Ubuntu's success do you think?

[sanderella]

As a representative of the Little Old Lady Community, I'd like to chip in with my thoughts on Ubuntu.

1. I agree with all the previous posts.

2. I couldn't have configured Ubuntu on my computer without the help of some very nice young men.

3. I would like to see more little old ladies using Ubuntu, because we are all on our pensions, and it is cheap!

4. For this to happen we need more advertising, publicity and word of mouth recommendations.

5. There are many many clever Ubuntans who could teach Ubuntu in night schools, get it better known - why don't you volunteer to teach it in your local community?

[corney91]

The fact that it is free means you've got nothing to lose if you give the LiveCD a try, and because it's awesome people keep it.
Also it is very easy to use, and the Ubuntu community=D> makes it even easier.

[forrestcupp]

Ubuntu was successful way before Vista came out, so that's not it.

I think "It's awesome" is an ambiguous way to say a lot of things. Its ease of use, its price, its community, its philosophy, its features.

The biggest reason it is successful is because it has a rich guy funding it and traveling all over the world pushing it to the max.

The reason it remains successful is the snowball effect. Once something gets big, that's what is in the public eye, so that's what they're going to go with.

[GMU_DodgyHodgy]

I can give my perspective as a relative linux newbie and someone who left windows in frustration.

I had an XP professional box that would have something in the registry break every 7-9 months that would prevent me to update the OS with patches, updates, etc. In addition, it would get slow because of registry bloat or some other feature related to the OS design. Now - there were a few applications I really liked that were Windows related (MS money - 7 years of financial history, Windows Movie Maker was decent to make movies with family photos and music), I also like a couple of Windows based games, and ITunes had my music.

However, the instability kept making me rebuild my system. So I did some research on alternative solutions. I looked at Apple. OS X is a fine OS, lots of good apps, and nice looking machines. However, I had a great monitor and wireless keyboard setup (new) and I pretty powerful box I built myself. I did not want to invest in hardware.

I looked at Linux - I did a lot of research and settled on trying Ubuntu because of the following reasons:

1.) Organized development structure towards development that resulted in easy and regular updates to system - automatic (much like Windows and Apple),
2.) Clean layout - again best of breed of apps for everyday computer use (Gnome, Evolution, Firefox, Rhythm Box, Open Office 2.2, et al).
3.) Well established hardware compatibility.

When I test installed the OS everything worked - including my wireless. Hence - I was able to migrate files and use the OS instantly. Once I established that I could manage my photos, music, home finances, and do things like make movies with my photos and music - I was hooked. It worked, was stable, secure, and had clean and polished look and feel.

Done.

Being free was the last thing I cared about. In fact I sent in money to Ubuntu for my download of Ubuntu because I felt like I received something of value and should renumerate the organization to help keep it doing it what it does.

My .02 cents

[SlayerMan]

IMHO Ubuntu is successfull (compared to other distros) because:
- it's not entirely "be free or die" (though Gutsy will be available in a fully free edition)
- it features some restricted drivers, leading to better hardware support
- it's easy to use
- it has the best updating mechanisms (with a lot of thought going into the user experience, e.g. a GUI dialog recommending a system restart when updating the kernel, or a restart of Firefox when it got updated)
- it boots and runs fast
- it's based on Debian
- you can use Automatix on it

Did I forget something?

[Adamant1988]

Ubuntu is successful because of good, viral, marketing.