Jack Wallen / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
It was October 2004, and I'd been using Red Hat Linux (way before it became Fedora) for years. I was fairly certain that would be my distribution until the world ended. I'd become comfortable with Red Hat. Sure, it had its quirks and was sometimes a bit more difficult than it needed to be (remember, it was over 20 years ago), but it was stable and I'd grown to know it well.
But then a new distribution arrived on the scene... Ubuntu. Oddly enough, the first version to hit the market was 4.10, aka "Warty Warthog." I'd not heard much about Ubuntu, but my curiosity was piqued, so I decided I would install it over Red Hat and see what was what. Since that moment, I've pretty much stuck with Ubuntu-based distributions for more than 20 years.
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In fact, other than testing, I can't remember the last distribution I used that wasn't based on Ubuntu. What makes Ubuntu so special that I've refused to even consider switching to another distro with a different base? Let me tell you.
1. Reliable updates
Over the two decades I've been using Ubuntu-based distributions, I believe I've only experienced one issue where an update wasn't successful, and the only reason that happened was because the OS I was updating had been dramatically customized to the point it was almost unrecognizable. With that upgrade, I did wind up having to scrap it and do a fresh installation, but again, that was one instance over a span of 21 years. Not a bad track record.
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Other than that, every upgrade I've executed on an Ubuntu-based distribution went off without a hitch. With Ubuntu (and Ubuntu-based distributions), I never hesitate to run upgrades (minor or major) because I know they'll work. With that in mind, why would I ever want to switch to a different base? It's that much of a no-brainer.
2. Ease of installation
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