[HybridCurve]

I remember trying Ubuntu when it was new. I did a default desktop install and after about an hour I tried to compile something and got "gcc: command not found". I could not fathom why anyone would not install a compiler on linux by default.

That was the last time I used Ubuntu.

[jm4]

It’s considered poor security practice to have compilers or interpreters installed on machines where they’re not needed. Someone who isn’t a developer and is only installing packages via apt (or snap, yuck) doesn’t need gcc.

[mrybczyn]

"security" practices, only get in the way of the good guys.

[MattPalmer1086]

Haha, I assume you are joking. Because they are intended to get in the way of the bad guys, to be sure at the cost of some inconvenience to the good guys.

[neoromantique]

Many ubuntu-*desktop* users don't need compiler, and since they were intended target audience ubuntu doesn't include it, after all if you need the compiler is it that painful to run `apt install -y build-essential`?

[HybridCurve]

I had been using linux for for almost 10 years by the time Ubuntu came out, starting with SLS and then moving to Slackware. The concept of not having a compiler was foreign to me as it was required to build the kernel so your system would have necessary device drivers and features.

> ... after all if you need the compiler is it that painful to run `apt install -y build-essential`?

No, of course not. But that's when it became obvious to me that I was not the target audience for that distribution, and had switched to Gentoo shortly after.