I strongly disagree with you about the Microsoft deal. And I'm not particularly fond of Mono either -- and I don't understand Miguel de Icaza's absurd obsession with anything that comes out of Redmond (see: Moonlight, for example).
Secondly, I just checked, and you can download a free copy of Mandriva.
Okay. I didn't know that.
Guess what you cannot get for free from Canonical? Support that does not involve an IRC channel or message board.
Neither can you from Red Hat or Novell, I would suspect...
Canonical also charges more for a single support license than Red Hat or Novell.
I don't care what Canonical charges! I'm not interested in buying any support contracts. I merely replied to your point about why Ubuntu was getting so much attention, and now it feels like I'm expected to defend Canonical's business desicions all of a sudden :-)
Fedora is Red Hat's declared desktop strategy, and the latest edition (Fedora 10) is excessively easy to install and use, and *just works,* under the same definition of "just works" that the Ubuntu fans use. Fedora is as suitable for "regular users" as Ubuntu is
On http://www.redhat.com/software/rhelorfedora/, Fedora is described as being something you should use if you are a "Developer or highly technical enthusiast".
(And I thought "just works" was a GNOME motto that Ubuntu adopted? Maybe I remember incorrectly.)
So your argument basically amounts to this: Novell and anything they sponsor is bad, because they have a deal with Microsoft,
Something like that :-)
except when you need something they put a lot of work into like Mono, in which case it is OK,
I don't care about Mono. Mono could die tomorrow and it wouldn't concern me.
Mandriva is bad because they used to charge for some packages,
I didn't know it was free of charge now. I still wouldn't choose to run it, though. But I didn't say it was "bad", I just replied to your question about why Ubuntu was getting so much attention.
and Fedora is not suitable for end users because you said so.
No, because Red Hat said so! Big difference.
But Ubuntu is OK because it is free, not involved in a Microsoft deal
I'd throw in "and Debian-based", which I happen to like a lot, but yeah :-)
, and never mind the fact that they just rebrand the work of everyone else.
Why all the Ubuntu-hating? It's a nice distro. You're making it sound like I hate Fedora or Red Hat! I don't! I'm fully aware of their MASSIVE contribution to the GNU/Linux desktop! I support them! I'd own shares in Red Hat if I could afford to buy any! All I'm saying is that Ubuntu is the distribution I choose to install on the machines of my family/girlfriend/friends/etc., because it's nice and neat and polished and just works.