Speaking for myself, this is why I switched from Ubuntu to Fedora. Let me clarify that I completely understand why most users would prefer's Ubuntu's approach, and I'm sure there are ways to make Ubuntu work this way, but basically I just feel more comfortable on Fedora for these reasons:
- There's a huge amount of Ubuntu branding and renaming. I initially paid attention to this after the pretty silent updates that added "Ubuntu branding" to Firefox. I saw a lot of packages and applications that were renamed (or at least represented differently) to make them more generic. Personally, I would rather use the raw software and see the real names for the software packages. Fedora does this a bit too, but to a lesser extent.
- The interface is very polished, but I like having a very raw, stripped-down interface. I generally work quickly, and I can't stand it when the OS can't keep up. I like KDE, and this can be a memory hog, but Ubuntu's additions are even worse, IMO. It was getting harder and harder with each version of Ubuntu to get the interface where I wanted, and now that they're branching away from standard GNOME, I only see this getting worse.
- On that note, I was very unimpressed by Kubuntu, as it had obviously not received the same quality of attention as Ubuntu. As I prefer to use KDE and LXDE, I appreciate the very consistent quality between all the "spins" of Fedora.
- SELinux and hard-drive encryption work out of the box. Again, I'm sure I could get this running just fine on Ubuntu, but it's so much easier with Fedora, so this contributed to me just feeling more at home.
- The kernel had been modified a ton before it got shipped in a release. When I recompiled a kernel it wreaked havoc on some of the software that had previously relied on the added functionality. On Fedora I rebooted into a vanilla kernel and had no problems.
I realize some of these are pretty abstract reasons, but these seem to be directions they're heading more and more, so as I said, I just feel more at home on Fedora, now that I'm comfortable using Linux.
The gnome problem is definitely an issue for me. Ubuntu's focus is obviously the "average" user so they make their changes in favor of people who don't know what they are doing and while it makes sense, it's not what I need/want. I think the Unity thing is a good example of this. While nice and easy for people to figure out, it's another step in the wrong direction from standard gnome.
I don't think they even do it well. I prefer the default menus system on Debian/Gnome. They think they are UI experts and clearly they are not. I think the best thing they could do is unify the system control panel - copy that from OSX rather than this weird hybrid thing they are doing. Though I'm hoping their unity project will mature into something nice. I'm not even that bothered that they are straying from Gnome. Having said that I have enjoyed Ubuntu - though I put most of my good experience down to the system sitting on Debian.
Thanks for that. I abandoned Ubuntu and went back to Debian (desktop) for some of the same reasons - I don't like Ubuntu's take on Gnome.
I think Ubuntu should have versions/spins like Fedora. I think it's confusing for the end user with their odd branding Kubuntu etc. How about Ubuntu - Education Edition, Ubuntu - Lightweight Edition, Ubuntu - Netbook Edition - something like that instead.
I switched to Debian from Ubuntu (where I got my start in Linux) because I no longer felt like I needed the UI or install to hold my hand and wanted to be able to build up my own system from a minimal install. I chose Debian simply because my Ubuntu experience had made me very familiar with aptitude, and I wanted to stick with something popular so my chances of successfully Googling for help were higher.
My work's servers use Debian, and my home ISP runs an unmetered repository for it too.
I've tried Fedora in the past when I was still very much a newbie and found it intimidating. Given I know next to nothing about Red Hat derivatives of Linux it would probably pay to get familiar with them sometime over the next few months.
That's a difficult question. I like Debian because I can build it up piecemeal from a minimal install. A lot of that is down to the package manager. Fedora might have similar functionality these days - though I didn't have a great time the last time I used Yum.
I like to drive my computer with the keyboard. I tried to avoid Gnome on my last install, but it's keyboard config, theme manager and Nautilus won over other desktops. I use metacity, which is boring but good.
To be honest I'm not totally enamoured with any Linux distro. But I like the ones that try to remain free. Oh and the ones that work with my hardware.
- There's a huge amount of Ubuntu branding and renaming. I initially paid attention to this after the pretty silent updates that added "Ubuntu branding" to Firefox. I saw a lot of packages and applications that were renamed (or at least represented differently) to make them more generic. Personally, I would rather use the raw software and see the real names for the software packages. Fedora does this a bit too, but to a lesser extent.
- The interface is very polished, but I like having a very raw, stripped-down interface. I generally work quickly, and I can't stand it when the OS can't keep up. I like KDE, and this can be a memory hog, but Ubuntu's additions are even worse, IMO. It was getting harder and harder with each version of Ubuntu to get the interface where I wanted, and now that they're branching away from standard GNOME, I only see this getting worse.
- On that note, I was very unimpressed by Kubuntu, as it had obviously not received the same quality of attention as Ubuntu. As I prefer to use KDE and LXDE, I appreciate the very consistent quality between all the "spins" of Fedora.
- SELinux and hard-drive encryption work out of the box. Again, I'm sure I could get this running just fine on Ubuntu, but it's so much easier with Fedora, so this contributed to me just feeling more at home.
- The kernel had been modified a ton before it got shipped in a release. When I recompiled a kernel it wreaked havoc on some of the software that had previously relied on the added functionality. On Fedora I rebooted into a vanilla kernel and had no problems.
I realize some of these are pretty abstract reasons, but these seem to be directions they're heading more and more, so as I said, I just feel more at home on Fedora, now that I'm comfortable using Linux.