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In my opinion Ubuntu’s success also has a lot to do with ease of usage. Getting into Docker, Kubernetes, etc. years ago it was very clear that development for t

In my opinion Ubuntu’s success also has a lot to do with ease of usage. Getting into Docker, Kubernetes, etc. years ago it was very clear that development for the whole cloud native ecosystem was happening on Ubuntu just from how easy it was to “apt-get install” everything. I think that focus for development created a smoother user experience that led to enterprise usage as well. Both were solid, both had the tools supported, but one required a little less setup sometimes.

dan_quixote 5y ago
So, lack of SELinux and the like?
- sjtindell 5y ago
  You still have AppArmor or whatever, it wasn’t really an OS specific tool or configuration process. To me it was more like - less bugs, because the dev was done on Ubuntu and so more got addressed. Less configuration, because they made sure to get the packages or kernel modules in upstream for an easy install for new devs, or it comes installed, as opposed to having to add a new repo and go get it. Less barriers, even if the barrier is just one extra command. These quality of life things that made it easy to do dev on Ubuntu, particularly for cloud native tooling right when everyone was shifting to those stacks, also made it easy for Ops teams to adopt it. More novice users who want low barrier to entry meant more StackOverflow answers available to troubleshoot it. Lots of intangibles that might strike a hardcore Sysadmin as irrelevant when choosing an OS but I think they made a strong difference.
awill 5y ago
I agree, but isn't that because they release so often? With RHEL releases every 4-5 years, getting the latest docker or kubernetes running would mean waiting years, or creating a frankentein RHEL with updated dependencies. Or just use Ubuntu to test it out, and maybe deploy to prod with that (or wait a much smaller amount of time for Ubuntu LTS).

dan_quixote 5y ago

So, lack of SELinux and the like?

sjtindell 5y ago
You still have AppArmor or whatever, it wasn’t really an OS specific tool or configuration process. To me it was more like - less bugs, because the dev was done on Ubuntu and so more got addressed. Less configuration, because they made sure to get the packages or kernel modules in upstream for an easy install for new devs, or it comes installed, as opposed to having to add a new repo and go get it. Less barriers, even if the barrier is just one extra command. These quality of life things that made it easy to do dev on Ubuntu, particularly for cloud native tooling right when everyone was shifting to those stacks, also made it easy for Ops teams to adopt it. More novice users who want low barrier to entry meant more StackOverflow answers available to troubleshoot it. Lots of intangibles that might strike a hardcore Sysadmin as irrelevant when choosing an OS but I think they made a strong difference.

awill 5y ago

I agree, but isn't that because they release so often? With RHEL releases every 4-5 years, getting the latest docker or kubernetes running would mean waiting years, or creating a frankentein RHEL with updated dependencies. Or just use Ubuntu to test it out, and maybe deploy to prod with that (or wait a much smaller amount of time for Ubuntu LTS).