Common problems with Ubuntu

[Oleg Goldshmidt]

I am not an Ubuntu user, but this thread seems to me a good
opportunity to find out on the cheap whether certain preconceptions
have a reason.

Somehow I got an idea in my head (marketing must work, probably in
mysterious ways) that Ubuntu is a distro explicitly designed for every
non-techie Tom, Dick, and Harry and their respective housewives, and
the point is to dispel the impression that "Linux is for geeks". This
may be correct or not.

If this is the case, and given that the OP is trying to choose a
platform for developers, can anyone say anything regarding Ubuntu's
quality as a *development* platform? Is it just the same as any other
distro? Is its choice and/or support for development tools
better/worse? Is there any advantage or disadvantage to Ubuntu
compared to XYZ distro specifically for developers?

I can imagine a mindset including "99% of our target market don't care
about compilers or linkers, so let's shove development tools somewhere
into 'extras' and not even offer to install them out of the box, let's
not update them as often as, say, browsers or email apps or multitouch
drivers, etc.". I am not saying this is Ubuntu's mindset. I don't
know, and I'll be happy to hear opinions.

-- 
Oleg Goldshmidt | pub at goldshmidt.org