[Causification]

I am an irregular Linux user and am not deeply involved in the Ubuntu community, but over the past several months I have seen the general attitude of "random geeks" change dramatically with regards to Ubuntu. A year ago the standard response to a new user inquiring about Linux was "install Ubuntu, it's easy, there's lots of help available. Go get 'em tiger." Now, Ubuntu is usually spoken of with a kind of regretful contempt. I didn't much care for it myself, but Ubuntu used to be the public face of Linux, the thing 95% of the Windows/OSX users hit if they get interested in Linux. As far as I can tell, it's fallen out of the good graces of the power user community. It appears as if Ubuntu has decided to forsake the early adopters and power users in favor of the newbies and average Joes. That may be well and good on principle but I don't see it as a strategy capable of sustaining an OS ecosystem that doesn't come preinstalled on Dick and jane's new laptop.

[slowpoke]

> A year ago the standard response to a new user inquiring about Linux was "install Ubuntu, it's easy, there's lots of help available. Go get 'em tiger." Now, Ubuntu is usually spoken of with a kind of regretful contempt.

True. I used to suggest Ubuntu myself (actually, I was one of the people who started with Ubuntu, now I'm on Arch).

I've switched to either suggesting to install one of the forks of Ubuntu (mostly Kubuntu or Xubuntu), Linux Mint or even Crunchbang.

[DanBC]

Good grief please don't suggest crunchbang for new users!!

Unless it's used as a transition for a clueful, but new to Linux, user who's going to learn a bit and then move to a different distribution. (Probably Arch or Tiny Core, if you're suggesting CrunchBang.)

[slowpoke]

>Unless it's used as a transition for a clueful, but new to Linux, user who's going to learn a bit and then move to a different distribution.

Exactly to those I would point to #!. By the FSM, I would never suggest #! to a user that doesn't already have a degree of technical knowledge.