So everyone has to consider what they personally want. As with
everything one must make compromises on way or another. There is no
perfect OS. Ubuntu tries to walk several lines, between stability and
innovation and another between free and proprietary. Some people
appreciate what they are trying to do while purists greet it with
derision and those who just want it to work can't see why they don't
include flash and codecs by default. As I said, it is a philosophical
difference. The same can be said with the rolling release concept of
Debian and the six month release cycle of Ubuntu. You either buy into
it or look elsewhere.

Which brings up the single best thing about Linux. We have choice
and nobody wants it any other way. There is a place for every distro,
including MEPIS and SUSE. There are users who like the small hand
crafted, slow growing approach, while others like the glitz and power
of a big corporation like Novell. There is a niche for just about
every possible use of Linux and users are free to go where they feel
best served.

Again Ubuntu is somewhere in the middle. It was once small, but now
it is huge compared to its humble beginnings. Canonical is a company,
but they are not even breaking even. They do not complain. They keep
building on their vision of Linux for everyone and hope that ordinary
users and business will respond. To date, they have, but there is a
long way to go before Ubuntu or any Linux distro can go head-to-head
with the big players, like Microsoft or Apple.

That is why it is unfair to compare Canonical to those companies or
their products, or even Novell, because they have established records
and product recognition. They also have a large say in what OEMS do.
Which is the primary reason why we don't have drivers (lack of OEM
cooperation, either because the market is small or they do not want to
PO M$ and spoil their preferred status).

It is still very much David and Goliath struggle, despite all of
Ubuntu's apparent success. Linux has an estimated 2 % of the desktop
market and Ubuntu has only about a half of that. In servers, Linux is
better developed, but Canonical has made little penetration there.
This is why I hate it when Linux users cut up other distros (not here,
but elsewhere), everyone is trying their best against great odds of
ever achieving success.