Linux Experiment, Nick, put up a video today on why he no longer recommends Ubuntu to users.
Now, that video makes the same mistake that many other Linux YouTubers make. They emphasize the wrong shit.
First thing he talked about was the desktop. How Ubuntu stays a version or two behind the current release of GNOME. Thats OK to bitch about but in reality. No one cares. I have converted DOZEN's of people to the Linux desktop. Whether Ubuntu 20.04 with GNOME or Linspire 11 with KDE and not a SINGLE person came to me and said thats GNOME or thats KDE. It's either I dont like it or I like it. They dont even KNOW what GNOME or KDE is. They dont know they are using it. For Windows users KDE seems to produce the better result and with Mac users GNOME hits the sweet spot. But I never had someone say to me, "Oh I dont like that because its not GNOME 41 or 42" or "I sure do hate thats not KDE 5.24" it just never happens.
Second thing, he talks about Snap vs Flatpak. Snaps are slow, Snaps take up a lot of disk space and Snaps dont follow system theming. Blah Blah Blah Blah. Once again, users who have NEVER used Linux before DO NOT CARE I dont like Snap because of the security issues so I tend to lean more towards Flatpak. Most people want to run web apps anyway more than anything these days so for the browser I tend to install either Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge which produce web properties with a more desktop integrated look and feel. Overall though I do agree Ubuntu should get rid of Snap and move to Flatpak but I dont see that happening anytime soon.
He also goes on to name quite a few fine community distributions which is great but lets get to the bread and butter about this post. Linux does not have a distribution problem. Linux has a community problem.
The problem is this. They LOVE to preach to the choir. Now all his criticisms are valid criticisms. The only problem is they are ONLY valid to the hobbyists and enthusiasts that already use Linux. The normal consumer user doesnt care about that stuff. As long as it is stable, doesnt crash and doesnt eat 80% of their ram thats what they care about. They want to hit the button and the computer cuts on. They want to click on the browser icon and their internet browser launches. Thats it. They dont care about mismatched libraries, they dont care that the application has a dark menu and the rest of the chrome is light (although that does need to be fixed) the consumer user cares about the experience and that it JUST WORKS. If it doesnt work they are going to find someone to reinstall Windows or macOS and if you refuse they are just going to take it to the geek squad or someone else and pay them to do it.
Linux has a real problem when it comes to desktop adoption and everything he talks about is not it (thats a post for another day) the community and developers better wake up otherwise every year will be the year of the Linux desktop with no progress.
But, if someone really wants to get into Linux I will always offer Ubuntu as a choice. Alot of those other distributions are just white noise. I personally would never suggest Linux Mint, Manjaro, Fedora, or Zorin. They are community driven targeting people who already use Linux and who are proficient with Linux. Ubuntu has been and will always be the closest to the Linux desktop that we will ever get. Its that 500 lb gorilla in the Linux world and if we have learned anything from Microsoft; that gorilla is hard to take down. For current users of Linux its a good video and shows Ubuntu's shortcomings and lists alternatives that you can use if you rather have new and shiny instead of stability. For beginners, or rather if you should offer Ubuntu to new users it really has no context. It comes off as sounding like sour grapes.
