How did you hear about ubuntu?

[xmastree]

I don't think I've seen this question before, so here goes.

For me, the first I heard of ubuntu was when a box of CDs arrived!

I had used linux before, Tried Redhat but eventually settled on mandrake. This was rather a forced decision as I didn't have the bandwidth to download CDs, and I had to buy them from a local shop. All their Red Hat stocks were faulty, so I tried Mandrake instead, and found that it was more suited to a beginner like me.

Then I kind of gave up on it, after I got broadband and tried repeatedly to download the latest (10?) version.

I'm still using 8.0 for my webcam (http://www.cginternet.net/webcam/webcam.html) but that box is starting to play up, and I'm already preparing the replacement, using Hoary.

So, how did you lot find out about it?

[void_false]

Read review on 2 warez sites. Both authors were very satisfied by this distro. One of them even swithched to linux wiht Ubuntu. Then I gave it a try and... here I am. \\:D/

At first I downloaded ISO, searched the wiki for install instructions and found out that i actually dont need that image. Then I installed Ubuntu from Knoppix using debootstrap.

[23meg]

while googling about debian and mepis.

[luca_linux]

While googling about debian based distros...and then I read some reviews on internet and magazines.

[ghostintheshell]

thanks to DistroWatch (http://distrowatch.com/) :grin:

Ubuntu is #1 \\:D/

[xmastree]

Oops, should have put more options...

[super]

thanks to DistroWatch (http://distrowatch.com/) :grin:

Ubuntu is #1 \\:D/

same here! :-P

[lothar_m]

I've found ubuntu while browsing distrowatch for debian based distros.

[Lord Illidan]

At work, one of our engineers recommended Ubuntu to me, and burnt me a CD on the spot. I still owe him one!

[byen]

I got introduced by another ubuntu user :-) I had fedora and was having nightmares while getting my broadcom Wifi card to work and when I posted a question at linuxquestions.com I had other users telling me that they had problems too and got no answers....but got one suggestion though...."why not try Ubuntu. Its the best"( I owe him a lot for that) ..I never heard about it unitil then and just thought Id try it out anyways...and boy am i glad! And after 5 months... I can tell you for sure that Im here to stay!

PS. I got to say, If not for the hundreds of walkthroughs written here....it would not have been possible. And not to forget this awesome community. IF only everyone knew about how good this distro is.... though I understand that word of mouth is the best way to market oneself...a lil promotion would go a long way!!

[Copter]

my friend said that ubuntu is user friendly distro and i really wanted to try linux. i downloaded kubuntu dvd from torrent network and here i am :D

copter :]

[glandula]

i was mainly browsing distrowatch in the search of a decent distro after some unhappy experiments with fedora and mandrake, picked a few i wanted to investigate. then a friend explained the advantages of debian and viola :)

[wmcbrine]

I don't remember with certainty, but I think I first read about it on Slashdot. It was either that, or the Fidonet Linux echo. But probably Slashdot.

[FLeiXiuS]

I was watching the canonical project and noticed they had a distro based on debian. I gave it a shot and loved it ever since. :-)

[Buffalo Soldier]

Found Ubuntu while browsing Distrowatch for Debian + GNOME based distros.

[sapo]

i got the warty cd in a magazine :P

[kanem]

First article (http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/15/2152201&tid=162&tid=90&tid=163&tid=106) about it on /.

[poofyhairguy]

A review on OS news.

[pmj]

Recommended by a friend.

[egon spengler]

I think I most likely heard about it on mozillazine forums. There's a slight chance it could have been opera forums but I think it was most likely mozillazine. In general I dislike both of those forums because of all of the zealots but they both have third party software/technical forums that often come up with some good info. I check them both semi regularly just for that

[UbuntuPerre]

I read about it in an article, visited the homepage, ordered 3 CD's and forgot the thing. About a month later the CD's arrived! Thanks guys! Now I've unistalled Windows totally! Miss Half-life / CounterStrike a bit though... Maybe I'll try Cedega.

Ubuntu is the most user-friendly and not-so-totally-full-of-different-applications Linux distro I've tried (I've tried Mandrake 10.0, SuSe 9.3, Fedora Core 3 and Xandros). I especially love the support possibilities!! The forums, the Wiki and all that!!! Thanks again guys! I also like the artwork and style of it all ;)

Btw this is my first post.
UbuntuPerre

[Muhammad]

Recommended by a friend.
Same here.

[Ubunted]

I really cant remember when I first heard about it - might have been when I was looking over the Gnoppix project's website. From then it was just little hints until the PR of 5.04 came out and I tried the LiveCD.

[kostkon]

I read about Ubuntu in the UK Linux magazine Linux Format, where they had a review of Warty (or maybe Hoary, I don't remember).

Anyway, I had a Mandrake Community Edition on my PC (installed from 3 CDs provided by the same magazine) but I wasn't satisfied and I wanted something better.

So, I started searching for the replacement, I was thinking of Installing Slackware but then I suddenly remembered Ubuntu and all the nice words that Linux Format had said about this distro. I visited the website, I read more reviews, I saw screenshots and I was very impressed! I, then , downloaded the Live and Install ISOs without second thought, and installed it. And that's it, I am a very happy user of Ubuntu!

And yes the poll could had more Options like "Magazine" as that it was my case...

[Kyral]

One of the CS TAs at my school overheard me bitching about Gentoo one day while in the Linux Lab and suggested Ubuntu. The rest as they say, is history :D

[jyank]

I found out about it in a weird way.

Some friends and I were in a chatroom bored one night, we all were using either Debian or Gentoo and we were trying to convince the only one still running Windows to try it out. He said he wanted to but since he had 56k and was cheap he didn't want to download it/buy a cd.

Then one other friend, who was the most experienced with linux at the time, said why don't you just get Ubuntu, they'll send it to you for free.

I was using Debian, and after reformatting, the next distro I tried was Ubuntu.

[GreyFox503]

Saw it running on a friend's PC in my dorm, before I ever used linux. I asked him what it was, and after he told me, I said "Uboo-what?"

The name was unique enough that it stuck in my head, so later I decided to download it.

[kahping]

saw a review on Slashdot.org n decided to give it a try. been satisfied with it ever since :-D

kahping

[heimo]

I read about Ubuntu in Arstechnica (http://www.arstechnica.com/) or LinuxJournal (http://www.linuxjournal.com/) and my initial thoughts were 'yet another distro, yawn'. Then I heard it was based on Debian and it's winning all the prizes on Earth - so I decided it was worth a look some day. And that day I immediately felt like home.

[autocrosser]

I found Ubuntu on a reference in the Garnome mailing list--I was using YellowDog Linux & wanted a more modern desktop (YD 4.01 uses Gnome 2.6!), so I was testing the new (at that time) 2.10--I thought to myself---Ubuntu??--that's a strange name for a distro????--maybe I ought to take a look............And here I am:)

[benplaut]

the forum at www.thinkpads.com ... at first i thought, "oh, cool... a nice liveCD", but it looked too non-featured to install.

then i found the forums, and saw that it starts simple, and builds up from there :)

[bjweeks]

I saw It on a linux distro review site.

[Slugger]

I heard about Ubuntu from a friend

[matthew]

I had heard about and been toying with Knoppix, then I bought a Linux magazine that had the Hoary cd with it. Installed and tried it out and kept it.

[Slugger]

I used Knoppix as a live cd until my friend told me about ubuntu so I installed it and liked it.

[PsyberOneZero]

I found ubuntu through gnoppix, I have been a gnome user for 4ish years and that had "Bleeding-edge" gnome stuff and eventually downloaded ubuntu and it's been my baby ever since about to push it and linux to the edge (Athlon64, PCI-E 16x Nvidia, 2 SATA II HD's and 2 SATA DVD Burners)

[tom-ubuntu]

Read article and many positive comments on www.osnews.com, tried the LiveCD and really liked it. The "Project Mom" started :D Now I migrated all my machines to Ubuntu aswell. Rest of family and friends will follow :) Keep up the great work!

[SKLP]

OSNews

[cutOff]

Can't remember very well but I think thanks to a good friend.

[darkmatter]

I just happened (luckily) to stumble across the site while surfing the net one day.

[atilasendil]

Well; after 5 years from my last try/frustration with Linux I thought I could not stay blind to the developments and tried to choose a distro googling and reading user opinions on different forums.
I was not searching for a Debian based one as I did not know details about Debian.
I was not searching on distrowatch as I did not know the site.
Shame on me but I had not read about it on /. as I did not know the site (remember having heard the name but ...)
Nor did I have a friend to offer/insist on ubuntu;
I searched for ease of use + gaming
and knowing distros like RedHat, SuSe, Mandrake I was trying to choose between them but saw Gentoo and Ubuntu mentioned a lot;
so they became the runners up despite dazzled coworkers and asking ubun what? gen what?
So here I am still a noob but I had luck about my choice to be among such friendly people :-)
I still may be a noob but : I can print from Canon bjc-210, mount msdos floppies, write CD-RW, play UT2K4Demo, had my share of gDesklets (gave up later due to time spent in front of the monitor and desktop being so crowded was tyring)
Thanks again Ubuntu
Thanks again People :-)

[macgyver2]

thanks to DistroWatch (http://distrowatch.com/) :grin:

Ubuntu is #1 \\:D/
Yup, Distrowatch for me too, last year around the Warty release...but I didn't get around to trying it for about 8 months. #-o

[Takis]

Debian had scared me big-time (it was my first-ever Linux install) and I wasn't happy with Fedora. I wanted Debian-based, and Ubuntu was a cool name.

[skoal]

I remember hearing some crazy talk dancing around on the net sometime ago:

Frank: "ubuwoobu what?!"
Henry: "You know, that ubiedoobie thing."
Frank: "oh, yeah. I've heard of it. It's an acronymn for something linux I think..."
Henry: "User Brewed Uber Newby Tailored Undertaking"
Frank: "Yeah, I think that's what I saw on wakipedia.org..."

so, I had to investigate these wild rumors back in April, and here I sit...

\\//_

[Kvark]

Oops, should have put more options...
Yep, should definately have had more options.


Was about to reinstall windows and suddenly thought "I've already used this for so long I can use it in my sleep, maybe it's time for something different". Typed www.linux.org into the address field as a guess on where to get 'something different' and surfed around from there. Ubuntu was the smallest download of the alternatives that where both gratis and said to be relatively easy. Haven't used anything else then ubuntu since then.

While I was surfing around for an easy distro a bored guy on MSN asked me what I was doing. I answered "I'm going to try linux, so I'm trying to decide which flavour to try". He went "Cool idea, think I'll have a look too" and went surfing linux sites too. He ended up trying fedora core and really liked it but kept windows as main OS because of his expensive ATI card and loads of windows games.

[qalimas]

At the time I used Fedora Core, 1 I think, and someone had posted about it on a Fedora forum under other Linux discussions. I doubted it at first (I was a KDE'er), but once I got used to GNOME in Fedora, I feel in love with Ubuntu.

[mstlyevil]

I heard of Ubuntu from an article in PC World raving about Ubuntu being the best free distro. I decided what the hell and loaded it on my computer and the rest is history. Here is the article.http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,121426,00.asp

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120520,00.asp

[slada]

I read about ubuntu in the same PC World article mentioned above. I had tried other distros before but none had convinced me to stick.

Ubuntu is very usable and the ease of installing new packages is what sold me on the distro.

[Wide]

Debian user that was told to try Ubuntu, I did & I like it for a desktop. The wife even likes it.

I still run Debian on my personal machine but I also dont play games or watch video, strictly bussyiness.

Debian on all the servers also \\:D/

[bored2k]

I used to visit distrowatch frequently. I read about it, thought it was promising and downloaded the Ubuntu Warty release candidate. Sure, it was bumpy enough to make me remove it to start juggling with other distros (a _lot of other ones), but I still installed it on a bunch of computers at a Linux class I attended. That was my Ubuntu start.

[TristanMike]

My friend said that her husband used this Linux thingy called Ubuntu, that it was the definative Linux OS. After a very unsuccessful and quite disheartening attempt at a SuSE Live CD, with my screen going all green (I know it's the color of the lizard but this branding is rediculous), I figured I'd give up on Linux. Well, I came to ubuntu.com not too long after, and found that they send free cd's, so I put in an order and forgot about it until one day this re-sealed, tattered package that had either been previously opened, or dropped, or kicked, or driven over, maybe a combination of all 4, who knows, showed up at my door (at least the post office did have the courtesy to re-seal it). But anyway, I digress, I installed the cd and after a little trepidation Ubuntu was installed flawlessly. I only had to set up the essentials (codecs and such), a couple of my fave programs available for linux (mainly Azureus) and I was, and still am, enjoying it in all it's "Hoary Glory".

BTW too bad you don't have a "hearing from a friend" selection. I suppose it's similar to "Given CD's by a friend" but since there wasn't, I just picked "other".

[arcanistherogue]

I was talking to my friend about picking a distro, and he said "Why don't you just use Ubuntu. It's what everyone is using these days, I even use it" so I downloaded and burned the ISO onto like 3 discs and then I installed.

Actually, I remember trying out the Live CD first, then I couldn't wait to burn the full install.

[graabein]

I spoke with a friend about me getting into Linux again and Ubuntu was one of the distros he recommended. Can't remember what the others where. I browsed the web and decided on Ubuntu. And there you have it.

[Stormy Eyes]

My wife asked me to help her install it on her PC.

[-Rick-]

Gentoo forums...

[Parkaboy]

I was quite pleased with Slackware and one day I attended to a talk about Java and Linux at university and the host gave some shipit cds to the ones who attended

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Probably from the PCLinuxOS community.

[FuturePilot]

I heard a lot of people online talk about how good it was, so I decided to give it a shot.