[danbmil99]

Just for another POV -- I love the fact that I can apt-get a version of practically any FOSS project of note, and within a minute or two, I have something that works with the rest of my system. If I need bleeding-edge, I go to the project page and download a later binary or source, but 90% of the time that's not necessary.

For me, it's a perfect combination of a vetted ecosystem (ok, somewhat closed but closed in the way I like -- no crapware, all legit source distros and mostly mature projects) with the ability to go outside that system at any time, at my own risk.

Anyone can set up a repository to add to/compete with Canonical's, and of course they do. So with my willow garage repo's, I can keep up with their concept of what's stable, etc. It works nearly perfectly, IMSHO.