Ubuntu having the best balance of ease of use and stability and at the same time as being the #1 distro people are using right now; it still is not easy to use for the average user. Not because Windows they are more used to which is a common misconception, sure it's a factor but not the only one. Typical users will never want to use the command line and in Windows, guaranteed 99% of hardware will work with Windows whereas Linux, not so much. Not to mention the Windows applications do seem to be faster than the Linux alternative; ie: Open Office vs MS Office, no doubt MS office is faster at launching. Firefox on Linux is also slower than Windows and OS X (which is very confusing but so true, you cannot deny that), not to mention flash support even with the open flash attempts, all fail miserably (crashes, funky behavior, etc.). Jaunty specifically IS MUCH FASTER than it's predecessors not only in boot time but in application. Use it side by side on identical machines. It beats some distros such as Slackware, Fedora, etc. in benchmarks, copying network files, etc.
As for the forums having 100s of unanswered posts, if you use the search feature for a problem you should find your answers. Think of it like a giant databse; library. If not, you must pursue your thread, post once a day on updates until you get to the bottom because threads do get buried. All of my problems as of 9.04 and help with the forums get solved fairly quickly; and they usually are specific application issues, not so much the OS, but it is a combination.
What I'm trying to get at is; people think Ubuntu isn't all that and it's not Linux when it is the closest chance as of now that Linux has at getting mainstream along the sides of Windows and OS X which is a good thing but unfortunatelty, most Linux users fear. Since most people that use other distro's hate on Ubuntu, chances of Linux ever reaching the masses are slimmed further. Why wouldn't you want Linux sold with a business model, you can still download the free copy? Sure, it's free open source software, but if you have a company behind it like Ubuntu you can actually make Linux open eyes to show a new alternative than Windows. It still costs cheaper than a machine with Windows and what you are paying the "tax" for is support from the companies. Eg: Dell, most machines you can get Ubuntu and it strips like $50 maybe more off the cost, but they still need to charge a small fee on the OS for the support calls they will get. Ubuntu's not the only Linux company to "charge" for services; remember Linspire or Freespire? Lindows? Also having Linux on mainstream machines with companies to hold their backs, it will only help raise competition with other OS's (commercial or not) which is always healthy for the market, causing more innovation and in the end, a better end user experience which in my opinion, is half of computing. And again, you can download Ubuntu for free but it's nice that you can get it preloaded VS Windows, price stripped off, sure it's a learning curve for newcomers, but the support is there from OEMS like Dell. And yes, Ubuntu is the most offered Linux distro on computers by OEMs, servers I don't know but consumer side; it's Ubuntu.
As for the forums having 100s of unanswered posts, if you use the search feature for a problem you should find your answers. Think of it like a giant databse; library. If not, you must pursue your thread, post once a day on updates until you get to the bottom because threads do get buried. All of my problems as of 9.04 and help with the forums get solved fairly quickly; and they usually are specific application issues, not so much the OS, but it is a combination.
What I'm trying to get at is; people think Ubuntu isn't all that and it's not Linux when it is the closest chance as of now that Linux has at getting mainstream along the sides of Windows and OS X which is a good thing but unfortunatelty, most Linux users fear. Since most people that use other distro's hate on Ubuntu, chances of Linux ever reaching the masses are slimmed further. Why wouldn't you want Linux sold with a business model, you can still download the free copy? Sure, it's free open source software, but if you have a company behind it like Ubuntu you can actually make Linux open eyes to show a new alternative than Windows. It still costs cheaper than a machine with Windows and what you are paying the "tax" for is support from the companies. Eg: Dell, most machines you can get Ubuntu and it strips like $50 maybe more off the cost, but they still need to charge a small fee on the OS for the support calls they will get. Ubuntu's not the only Linux company to "charge" for services; remember Linspire or Freespire? Lindows? Also having Linux on mainstream machines with companies to hold their backs, it will only help raise competition with other OS's (commercial or not) which is always healthy for the market, causing more innovation and in the end, a better end user experience which in my opinion, is half of computing. And again, you can download Ubuntu for free but it's nice that you can get it preloaded VS Windows, price stripped off, sure it's a learning curve for newcomers, but the support is there from OEMS like Dell. And yes, Ubuntu is the most offered Linux distro on computers by OEMs, servers I don't know but consumer side; it's Ubuntu.