What makes ubuntu so... warm and friendly?

[MegaLoler]

Ive wondered why I like Ubuntu so much. Maybe it's because its all free and theres so many great applications for it? But what I like most about it is that it has a good feel to it, especially the human theme. I feel very warm and cozy when I use it. Do you feel that too?

[Naiki Muliaina]

Because I can do what I want without fixing things (like I used to with Linux), without fear of viruses (though awareness I am not invincible), and the fact I rarely have to open Terminal.

[wilee-nilee]

For me it is the no activation key to be quite honest. I could list all the downsides of MS but I would would then have to list them for open source, none of the analysis would be in any way accurate; to many variables.

[Frogs Hair]

The user community , developers and personal customization .

[foxxxy]

The user community , developers and personal customization .

^This.

[Dustin2128]

Not sure why people bashed and flamed the default hardy-era desktop theme, I personally loved it. Homepage conveyed the message pretty well too.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

Ive wondered why I like Ubuntu so much. Maybe it's because its all free and theres so many great applications for it? But what I like most about it is that it has a good feel to it, especially the human theme. I feel very warm and cozy when I use it. Do you feel that too?

I get the same thing, too. Can't put my finger on why, but whenever I use Windows it feels like I'm working in the cement basement of my computer. Something about the Gnome desktop's design, while certainly imperfect, gives it a really cozy, homely feeling for me.

Not sure what causes it. Maybe it's just that I can never be bothered to fix the mouse sensitivity in Windows, but in Ubuntu that stuff all defaulted to the settings I like. (I get the same feeling in MacOS X, and in that case I know it's the broken mouse acceleration). Focus follows mouse and alt+dragging windows helps, too; I'm not reaching for title bars all the time. It feels softer and fluffier :)

[foxxxy]

Not sure why people bashed and flamed the default hardy-era desktop theme, I personally loved it. Homepage conveyed the message pretty well too.

I agree, I miss the human themes.

[Naiki Muliaina]

I love the new themes, but the new wallpapers, mlah, used to love the browns and oranges.

[Phrea]

The community, full stop.

[Noz3001]

I don't even think it's the themes for me. I've used tonnes of distros and tried BSD's with gnome but none feel as lovely to use as Ubuntu. It's just nice.

[v1ad]

Me. :D

[Austin25]

Might be the smooth themes, although the open-source philosophy is very friendly. I think there would be a group hug right now if we were all talking in person.

[MegaLoler]

Ha, yeah, seems like there would be xD

[finny388]

Mr. Picklesworth said:
Can't put my finger on why, but whenever I use Windows it feels like I'm working in the cement basement of my computer. Something about the Gnome desktop's design, while certainly imperfect, gives it a really cozy, homely feeling for me.that made me laugh but it's true

but oh let me count the ways:

the ubuntu logo and philosophy
no activation
no cost
no viruses
no crashes
no rebooting after installations
community is friendly and helpful
free to customize
light (as you want) on resources
software and OS updates are handled together


you are just in a different world where you are a member of a community not a customer with a license number.

[valbaca]

20 second boot time ;)

[Mr. Picklesworth]

Mr. Picklesworth said:that made me laugh but it's true

but oh let me count the ways:

the ubuntu logo and philosophy
no activation
no cost
no viruses
no crashes
no rebooting after installations
community is friendly and helpful
free to customize
light (as you want) on resources
software and OS updates are handled together


you are just in a different world where you are a member of a community not a customer with a license number.

I'm really just talking general use here. It is the strangest thing…

[murderslastcrow]

Well, when I first started using it, there was no end to the benefits. Windows is such a startling contrast, really, especially if you like computers at all. The internet was really what got me into computers, and now computers are getting me back into the internet through the open source community- who'd have thunk it?

It's warm and friendly at first because everyone's so willing to help, even when there are fewer problems these days, and everyone at the forums are just so reasonable and real most of the time. I tend to see a lot more tenacity among Mac and Windows users. Much more clinging to the image of their OS as the Holy Grail. Linux is whatever you want it to be- we all have a different idea of what it means to us. It's not some elitist technology we have to uphold and buy tons of products to show off. It's all around us, this open source thing- Windows and Mac users can feel it, too.

But once you get past all that, there's still so much high quality software, such natural and aesthetically beautiful GUI toolkits... it's just astounding. Many people boast KDE 4 as an amazing feat in modern technology without ever getting down to the fact that it has the best design technology, as well. SVG, radial gradients, smooth, crisp, beautiful widgets everywhere, and all with a tiny footprint.

Really, what's not to love? And whenever you do find a bug, you always have a lot better communication with developers. All around it's just a better experience, and the completeness of that experience is what I think provides that warmth. Despite our supposedy 'fragmentation', the scene for OS X and Windows users seems fairly disjointed at some point of this equation.

[Legendary_Bibo]

Well when I had Vista, I at first spent 30% of my time on maintenance, and that soon grew to about 80% of my time on it on maintenance until the day it died. Ubuntu, or Linux in general has their general OS malfunction quirks, but they're not permanent unless you mess with system files which I don't mess with except for the bashrc or the OS sounds. It has an incredibly fast boot time (its slowed down with eye candy, by like 5-10 seconds, big whoop). My brother says that Vista broke because of all the programs I installed on it (like games, and maintenance stuff, and MS Office). I've installed tons of applications of Ubuntu, and they don't give me any trouble. I don't see why they should unless I'm constantly running them in the background. Why should they do anything besides take up hard drive space?! Also now that I have my schools' Citrix client working on Ubuntu I can use MS Office without booting into my WinXP Virtualbox. For me it's just that it works! Also when fixing something in linux, the instructions make sense, and don't require you to install another program.

[amanjsingh]

Because I have the power----

apt-get FTW

[handy]

The UF & its CoC.

Without the CoC & the mods who administer it, then we end up with many insecure people demonstrating their ugly need to attack others personally in an effort to protect their own fortress of beliefs/views, which are then quite often attacked for no other reason than to get the desired result. This happens for a variety of reasons.

A level of mature communication is insured by the CoC. Due to this some don't play here who otherwise would, they find it too tame.

[s0rc3r3r]

:KS:KS:KS:KS:KSconsistent performance!!!

[Lisimelis]

Everything of the above, plus: I never have the sensation that something is being hidden from me when i use ubuntu (or linux in general for that matter). On the other hand i always feel (and feel free to call me paranoid) being watched when i sit on a windows machine.

[Khakilang]

Because its just work out of the box. Because its secure. Because its fast. And I like Deep Purple.

[sikander3786]

Because it is open source, I get a feeling that it belongs to me. I want to contribute to make it one of the most widely used OS and want to see it win at least against MS (keep in mind that I have got no personal problems with MS ;-) ). That's my passion and thats what makes Ubuntu so much special to me.

[julio_cortez]

I love the "challenge".

When I first got Kubuntu it was just because I was too lazy to format my old PC and then install Windows, all the updates, all the programs and so on..
The old PC was too old for gaming of any kind (except maybe for PES3 or similar things) so I thought "in half an hour I'll have it up and running and it will serve my purpose (surfing the web) perfectly, let's give Kubuntu a go"..

Now on my new PC I installed it because I'd like to feel the challenge in creating my own .conkyrc for example, or in configuring compositing the way I like, eventually learning something different and new everyday :)

[Denis Krajnc]

~Because of very friendly community.
~Because it's free & Open Source.
~Because you got the power.

[jkxx]

More than anything, the philosophy and community behind it.

Wanting to make something polished and usable and give it away for free is a noble undertaking, and having a community interested in getting everyone's issues resolved is a huge bonus as well.

And perhaps last but not least, the fact that ubuntu is an OS that truly caters to the needs of its users, unlike proprietary OSes where the user is at the mercy of the company.

For what it's worth ubuntu is doing rather well in all of these, and is continually improving as time goes by, at least from what I've seen of it so far.