It's easy to argue that Ubuntu's success is because there's an
unlimited supply of investment from its super-rich parent company,
Canonical. But Linux isn't like any ordinary software stack.
People
aren't forced to use it, and we can all choose something else at no
extra cost. Ubuntu has to be doing something right. Ubuntu's biggest,
and earliest, success has been in marketing itself. It's become a
recognisable brand, not only in the Linux community, but in the wider
non-technical world.
For some, the word 'Ubuntu' has become synonymous with Linux. And
that's a vital trick. These are people who would never have considered
Linux as a viable alternative to their proprietary operating systems
before the advent of Ubuntu. Right from the outset,
Ubuntu has been marketed as 'Linux for Human Beings', rather than the
stereotypical anti-social, bearded geeks of Hollywood movies. (It also
helps if you've got a charismatic spaceman to run the show and you can
afford to send out CDs for free.)
There are three reasons why Linux isn't succeeding on the desktop,
and none of them are to do with missing functionality, using the
command line or the politics of free software.
