[brudgers]

I suspect Ubuntu's user base isn't more discriminating. Ubuntu targets people who want to switch from Windows, and most of those people want to switch because "it's free."

If Ubuntu's target market was more sophisticated they wouldn't be reviving the old "sponsored computer" model of fifteen years ago.

[obviouslygreen]

That's what people say, and probably what Ubuntu says as well, but I'd wonder if their actual user base is really composed of a significant percentage of ex-Windows non-power-users.

I put Ubuntu on just about everything, so do several other devs I know, but we don't use Unity, we have our own preferred environments... so while there is that angle to Ubuntu, I'm not sure how well that actually represents the reality of their installation base.

[jlgreco]

I agree, I think the claimed Ubuntu target audience / core base of users is a complete fantasy. In reality the bulk of their users seem to be standard Linux users who don't care a ton about the particulars of their distro so they just pick the one perceived as the default choice because they don't have any reason to put more thought into it (damn near everything is the same between distros these days, the only big choice for most people is how often you want releases, or if you want rolling releases). If the claimed sort of Ubuntu user actually exists, they are rare enough that I have never encountered them.

[brudgers]

I think that the bulk of the people currently using Ubuntu are moderately sophisticated technically.

However, I also believe that Canonical is pivoting Ubuntu toward non-technical users because a) it differentiates Ubuntu; b) it offers room for growth; c)it allows them to pursue more diverse revenue streams.