How committed are you?

[s|k]

If tomorrow there was a new distro that just hands down was amazing and nice and shiny: how likely would it be that you give up Ubuntu and try this new distro out?

[Omnios]

Im so impressed with Ubuntu that I put off trying other distros. Ubuntu and Debian are the only distros I have tryed so far and unless I get another putter dought I will try another soon. My P2-350 died either the graphics card is dead or the biosy battery is dead, that has happened before when I gave it to my sister before. The only reason I tryed Debian was because my old P2 with sis crap would not install Ubuntu though I tryed to the point of praying lol.

[aysiu]

It's doubtful I'll leave, as I already consider Mepis a better distro than Ubuntu--always have. And now that it's based on Ubuntu, I consider it still better than it was before.

When I say "better," I mean more fully featured.

That's not what's most important to me, though. I use Ubuntu because of the helpfulness of this community, the "humanity toward others" philosophy, and its commitment to being free. I don't use Ubuntu because it's "the best distro."

[Kethinov]

The best distro is always the one I use. Right now the best distro is Ubuntu. If something better comes along, of course I'll switch. $deity knows there's always room for improvement in Linux.

[briancurtin]

i left for arch from ubuntu without thinking twice. ill leave arch if i find something that fits me better. its unecessary to be commited to ubuntu.

[Qrk]

If there were a distro out that fit my needs better than Ubuntu I'd switch very quickly.

Of course, I haven't found such a distro. If I had, I wouldn't be here.

Ubuntu is great, I like it a lot. There are a lot of easier distros out there, like Mepis, and a lot of more customizable distros out there, like Slackware and Gentoo. There are probably faster distros out there, like Yoper and SuperSuSE. But I don't think any come close to Ubuntu's unique blend of Community, up-to-date .debs and popularity.

[fuscia]

i plan on buying a mac notebook of some kind and keeping ubuntu on my desktop. if i were going to use something else, it would probably be something like one of the bsds. i like variety.

[endersshadow]

I'd dual boot the distro to check it out, and if it were better, I'd make the full switch :-D

[Sef]

I would be unlikely to leave Ubuntu. It will be my main distro. On a second computer, I'd like to try out other distros, but but just to keep up with what is out there.

[jpkotta]

If there were a distro out that fit my needs better than Ubuntu I'd switch very quickly.

Of course, I haven't found such a distro. If I had, I wouldn't be here.

Ubuntu is great, I like it a lot. There are a lot of easier distros out there, like Mepis, and a lot of more customizable distros out there, like Slackware and Gentoo. There are probably faster distros out there, like Yoper and SuperSuSE. But I don't think any come close to Ubuntu's unique blend of Community, up-to-date .debs and popularity.

Exactly. Why should there be any loyalty to one distro if there is another one that is strictly better for one's needs? I said "likely", because Ubuntu is working great for me, but that doesn't mean I won't switch to something better in the future.

[s|k]

Well one issue is that it's not like changing clothes. You can't just install a new distro over your current one and keep all your settings, files, and data can you?

[briancurtin]

yes you can. create a separate /home partition and you never lose anything (unless you mess it up or the disk goes bad)

ive installed/reinstalled arch a few times since i started with it and i havent lost a single thing because ive kept the same partitioning scheme since the start. its somewhat like changing clothes, but more like a heart transplant that is as easy as changing clothes.

[Tedd]

It's hardly a question of how dedicated you are. Okay, well, SOMETIMES it is. It's not that I'm not dedicated- out of all Linux distros I've tried (FreeBSD, Solaris, MEPIS, Kororaa, and a few others) Ubuntu is the best. But I'm the itinerant troublemaker- I like to know all I can. :)

[PatrickMay16]

The wording of this question is kind of confusing. Abandon makes it sound like you'd drop ubuntu and start using the new distribution immediately.

For me, I would have to get to know the new distribution well before I would consider replacing ubuntu with it. Also it's a lot of work to switch from one distribution to another, and everything is already working fine here.

[Buffalo Soldier]

I would take a look at the new distro. If it suits my needs more than ubuntu, if the community is as friendly or more friendly than here.... i might stay.

But I doubt this might happen. I love this place.

[briancurtin]

Abandon makes it sound like you'd drop ubuntu and start using the new distribution immediately.
thats what i did with Arch, which i guess is kind of odd. i read up on it, then switched one day.

[Mathias-K]

I would consider myself a fan of this whole Shuttleworth/upcoming leader distro thing as well as the rapid expansion into "new" DEs and Edubuntu for it's rarity.

If there was a better distro where for example Firefox and VLC were perfectly integrated into KDE, I would consider switching, but only until Kubuntu or something similar would offer it, I think.

[prizrak]

I use whatever does what I want it to do, Ubuntu does it. If someone comes out with a new distro that will promise something Ubuntu is lacking I will try it. So far though I find Ubuntu to be the best balanced distro on the market (out of the ones I tried). By best balanced I mean the balance between stability and features as well as ease of use for newbies and functionality for techies. Somehow I doubt someone would come out with something that would rival Ubuntu in that respect as most distros seem to be aimed at either one or the other.

[awakatanka]

I change to a distro that is better if it feeds my needs. And the needs include a good community that is helpfull.

[Kvark]

I'd switch without thinking twice. As long as the new distro is open source too I'd still be on the same side of the fence.

[bonzodog]

I already know of a distro that suits my needs more, but I am waiting for the 64 bit port. The Distro is called 'Zenwalk Linux' and is based on slackware, but it is a lot more up to date.

[Kindred]

I switched to Arch without thinking twice.. i'll surely switch again if I come across anything better (unlikely though).

[angkor]

Unlikely.

I don't see a great deal of big differences between the various distros. Sure they all look the different and have different default setups but that's pretty much configurable. It's all linux for people with different tastes.

I like the Ubuntu flavour, the distro and the community :)

I don't see a distro coming in the near future that beats ubuntu for me, so I'll probably stick around for the next couple of years. If one does come out that fits me a lot better than ubuntu (not just a little) I'll probably switch. It was like that when I switched from Debian Unstable to Ubuntu. I'm not a distro hopper and debian and ubuntu are the only two distros I've really used.

[polo_step]

The question isn't really meaningful, as it leaves out -- or doesn't clearly address, anyway -- larger factors that are probably more important to a successful Linux experience than the closest achievement to some platonic ideal of technical code perfection. I'm sure there are "better" Linux distributions than Ubuntu somewhere in the five hundred or so out there. I see plenty that are at least more interesting and more aesthetically pleasing.

Unfortunately, they are very poorly supported compared to Ubuntu, and support is critical with Linux because you are definitely going to need help.

Popularity creates a positive value of more significance than inherent virtue in this case.

[Iandefor]

if it met my needs better than Ubuntu, I'd switch.

But I'd still keep an Ubuntu partition.

[IYY]

If the other distro really is better? Sure thing, but I doubt it's gonna happen any time soon.

[Simian]

In the past I used to change distro as often as my socks (quite often). But Since trying Ubuntu I have rearly felt the need to change. And when I have changed out of curiosity (e.g. FC5 recently) I end up re-installing Ubuntu shortly afterwards.
That said, I'm not into blind faith either. If there was a genuinly better distro out there (for me) I would consider switching.

[G Morgan]

A bit of a loaded question really. If the Distro was 'better' then yes I would switch but the definition of better in this case means having superior qualities in the areas you need them. For example distro x could be brilliant for servers, vastly superior to Ubuntu in this area in all ways. It wouldn't even register a score in terms of the Desktop though.

Having tried a fair few distros recently I struggle to find something as good as Ubuntu. Gentoo was the only one for obvious reasons but when 90% of your time is spent compiling it kind of defeats the objective.

I always VMware new distros anyway so would have plenty of exposure and opportunity to switch but I think I will be with Dapper for a while.

[Stormy Eyes]

If tomorrow there was a new distro that just hands down was amazing and nice and shiny: how likely would it be that you give up Ubuntu and try this new distro out?

I'm not committed at all. If something better than Ubuntu comes out, and a LiveCD is available, I'll try the LiveCD. If it rocks, then I'll dump Ubuntu. Hell, I'm thinking of getting a Macbook this year.

[Lovechild]

I already did (well returned to a better distro).

[papangul]

It's not for my commitment to Ubuntu that I'll stick to Ubuntu for sometime in future, it's because I don't want to invest time and effort in configuring in new system. I am quite happy with my Dapper installation, so why take unnecessary trouble?

[RavenOfOdin]

I'd switch, most likely to Debian or SuSE, but I would keep a partition for Ubuntu as long as:

A) It suited my needs.
B) I had static repositories/files of importance on the Ubuntu partition.
(With 22GB warez collections, this has happened to me before.)

[CronoDekar]

I doubt I would, simply because I don't tinker that much with my system. For the most part I just need a nice, consistent, stable experience. Of course, it'd depend on just how new and shinier it is -- if it's just little things then I'd be very unlikely to switch.

And as always mentioned, Ubuntu's community support is great. I'd think it'd have to either match Ubuntu's in that respect to get me to switch.

[jnev]

currently I haven't found any distro that comes even close to matching ubuntu in my eyes. if I do find one (and I'll play with it for a while before deciding) then yes, I will dump ubuntu. I don't believe that ubuntu is any better than any other linux distro, it just works best for me. I don't just support ubuntu, I support anything linux.

[Orunitia]

Definitely. I'm not "commited" to any distro, I use what works best for me, and you're a fool if you don't.

[henriquemaia]

I like to really go into things. I tried other distros occasionally, but I always kept a main distro (where I do my work) for a long time. Ubuntu is my main distro since Hoary. I started with Redhat, then Mandrake, and then SuSE, all of which are rpm based. Since I got to Ubuntu and tried apt, going back to rpm is unthinkable.

Apart from that, this community is awesome. Ubuntu`s humanity to others principles complete my choice.

I`m more productive here than I was ever before.

[bored2k]

I'm not commited to Ubuntu the operating system in any way, so I'd say it's very likely I'd switch if I find a more suitable distribution. In fact, my box is breathing ArchLinux as we speak.

[bored2k]

Definitely. I'm not "commited" to any distro, I use what works best for me, and you're a fool if you don't.
Exactly.

[K.Mandla]

I'm always more than willing to throw a CD into a laptop and give something a whirl, but to date, I keep going back to Ubuntu. For example, I tinker with Arch on an old P3 Latitude, and I've installed it on two desktops for comparison, but my main-man rock-solid gotta-be-there-to-save-the-day machine has Dapper on it. Period.

[Orunitia]

Just like to add that since warty was released, no distro HAS been better for me. :p I don't see myself getting rid of (k)ubuntu anytime soon.

[orev]

I haven't been around the block as much as some, but Ubuntu is easy to like.

I suppose if the Open Source "community" can keep a bit more focused - on fewer distrobutions - maybe there is more potential for greatness. Ubuntu seems to have some momentum and a few users....

The question is a bit of an open ended. I don't imagine that we will all be running "Ubuntu" in 100 years...but maybe it'll be hot in the next 10-15.

I guess we'll have to all just see how the port of the linux kernel to the "Quantum" computer goes....

I don't think the current (dying?) model of commercial software, including operating systems, will live very much longer....and if it is all free beer, does it matter what it is called, or if it just works?

Open. Free. Knowledge Sharing. For the People. That's all that matters to me...oh yeah, it also has to play neo-hippy music.