[SOLVED] Why choose Ubuntu over Fedora?

[davwar]

I've been wanting to get into Linux for some time and tomorrows new release will be my starting point.

I chose Ubuntu because it was the first version that I came across and it seems well supported but I'd like to know why it's a good one to use.

Does anyone have a very brief, clear, high level description of why Ubuntu should be chosen over others? and maybe what strengths Fedora has?

I thought that for starting out as a home user that Ubuntu and Fedora were the two to consider - I understand the two branches of Linux but just wanted a few bullet points of pros and cons.

Thankyou for any info.

[Joeb454]

It's really a matter of personal choice. I've used Fedora, and found the package management system to be really slow, whereas Ubuntu isn't.

You can try out the Ubuntu Live CD and if you don't really like it, then you can try out Fedora's Just remember that using Live CD's results in a much slower system when compared to a fully installed system.

[billgoldberg]

I've been wanting to get into Linux for some time and tomorrows new release will be my starting point.

I chose Ubuntu because it was the first version that I came across and it seems well supported but I'd like to know why it's a good one to use.

Does anyone have a very brief, clear, high level description of why Ubuntu should be chosen over others? and maybe what strengths Fedora has?

I thought that for starting out as a home user that Ubuntu and Fedora were the two to consider - I understand the two branches of Linux but just wanted a few bullet points of pros and cons.

Thankyou for any info.

Ubuntu has the best support in the linux world. (forums and irc).
And it's repositories are also top quality. Together with apt, they make a killer duo.

[spacegypsy]

You can find a good overview of the pro and cons of te major distro's on distrowatch; http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

Why Ubuntu;

1. Great community for support
2. Best hardware detection

[sayakb]

Ofcourse, debian package management is excellent. Plus, personally, I felt that Ubuntu is easier to set-up and supports a wider range of hardware (though it might not be the case in all countries)

[davwar]

It seems I'm starting with the right version.

Thankyou for the feedback

[philinux]

Fedora is more cutting edge and gets rapid software update. But that could be interpreted as bleeding edge.

Fedora has a live version. I'd try them all out. I use cdrw's - no more coasters.

I was recommended ubuntu from a friend who runs his business from home using debian. The package management in ubuntu is very good. It's never failed me yet. And this community in faultless.

[Mauler5858]

Another boon about ubuntu is that it has pretty good multimedia support.

[Joeb454]

Another boon about ubuntu is that it has pretty good multimedia support.

This is especially true with Hardy, if you install the ubuntu-restricted-extras meta package, it installs all the gstreamer plugins etc.

I've not yet had to install a video codec, and I've been running Hardy since beta

[Cypher]

The predecsor to Fedora, Redhat, used the RPM package manager, while a perfectly good system, you had to download the RPMs manually and install them. YUM automates the retrieval just like APT and greatly eases this particular aspect of Linux management.

Now Fedora tries to push the latest and greatest stuff out, but the problem is that in a lot of cases this is not fully tested/stable stuff that might actually break your system. Redhat was a lot more stable and I used that for a while..I did try Fedora for a while, but I liked the stability of Debian and when Ubuntu came out, being based on Debian was enough for me to switch.