Not sure what the reason is for Ubuntu’s considerable market share. My guess would be that Ubuntu is more mainstream and the “Linux for n00bs” and that a ton of Ubuntu users are dual booting WinXP,7/Ubuntu users that want to see what all the Linux fuzz is about. That type of user is pretty useless as a contributor due to total lack of technical knowledge. The users with skills are in my experience using Fedora, Debian, Mint, Arch etc.

Ubuntu seems to do a good job at marketing their stuff while failing spectacularly when it comes to contributing back to the Community at large (how many kernel, gcc, gnome etc developers are paid by Ubuntu again?).

Fedora is cutting edge and requires one to actually know things so it attracts a different kind of people with actual technical skills (similar to Debian). And because it is cutting edge the n00bs don’t feel comfortable because they think incorrectly (or heard from a friend of a friend) that Fedora is “difficult” or “does not always work unless ” or “requires difficult actions using that scary command line”, etc. Fedora’s cutting edge removes some of the predictability that things will work and will work the same when the next release surfaces. It would not surprise me if the short release cycles (which I love) scare away many n00bs who then try out Ubuntu.

The Ubuntu docs are quite good. The Fedora Community really could do a better job there. But I guess most Fedora users don’t need them or just use the mailing list & irc. RTFM is for n00bs after all 🙂

What distributions provide Gnome 2? You make conclusion that Gnome 3 is more popular than Gnome 2 while not accounting for the fact that no distro ships Gnome 2 now and users have to hack to run it.

I really like feedback from Kamil Páral. He caught the point and hit the nail on the head.

I’m missing one thing in this topic (it’s mentioned but not highlighted here) – who is actually the target audience for Fedora from Fedora developers point of view? On one hand, you are not happy with low user base compared to Ubuntu (used mainly by “n00bs” as stated in this blog but that’s not true at all) and you would like to attract more users (even the non-technical ones I guess). On the other hand some of you claims Fedora is more or less for experienced users only. In that case there should be no surprise to have lower user base than Ubuntu has.

What I would also like to know is the definition of “technical user”. I use Fedora since FC2 and I can say there is no special technical skill needed in today’s Fedora anymore (if I speak about standard work on desktop). Some settings of the desktop and system environment can be done in desktop tools and the current set of settings should satisfy the most of standard (means non-technical) users. If Ubuntu can offer some other basic (or even advanced) settings via Desktop than Fedora is capable to do today, does it immediately mean Fedora is for “technical users” only (e.g. use command line or modify configs) or is this statement just an excuse / defence of the fact Fedora has missing or not finished GUI interface? What ever the answer is, definitely these small details can influence user’s decision between Fedora and Ubuntu. But if your aim are technical users only (e.g admins and developers), just ignore this question.

If I compare Ubuntu and Fedora on OS level only (no desktop), I’m sure, Fedora can offer more than Ubuntu but in most cases this advantage is mainly for enterprise solutions (lots of cloud and virtualization projects, system and network enhancements). One can see amazing number of new features coming in F18 but (based on their scope) the target audience are again system administrators in most cases.

So what can attract standard end users? It’s all about the desktop and applications these days. As Kamil Páral mentioned, users want to work with multimedia and other applications that are often proprietary and not included in Fedora by default. But it does not mean Fedora cannot offer it. Just Fedora newcomers are not aware of 3rd party repositories so they go to other distributions (Ubuntu) because they do not want spent hours of searching for alternative solution. They just want to “plug & play”.
Fedora could maybe inform users about availability of other repositories automatically when the multimedia application search for missing codecs but none is found in default repos. Fedora could offer “single click” way to install additional repositories. Well default OS installation will comply Fedora philosophy but could also help / guide users to fulfil their needs as much as it is possible (further proprietary software) but still in terms of Fedora freedom politics.

Next (and I think the root cause of the discussed problem), it is all about small details only – already mentioned missing software centre, single-click to install other repos (if this could be acceptable for Fedora team), installed gnome-tweak-tool by default, small pop up windows over some menus (when mouse is over) with info/tips describing more details about what’s this action used for and other small detail improvements that can make desktop more polished and “user friendly”.
For example: How I will be informed (as a user) about possibility to record my desktop screen with integrated Gnome 3 tool in F18 without my own investigation and detailed reading of shortcut possibilities in keyboard settings? Normal user will most probably not find it (there is no icon for execution in menu now) and will search for some other application capable of desktop screen recording on web. Why if it is not needed at all?
So that’s it. Fedora has it all available and implemented already. It just misses these small detail tweaks that make user’s life much more easier and motivates them to stay with Fedora distribution.

Last but not least, please do not ignore or underestimate “n00bs” (as I saw in this blog). First of all, everybody of us had his/her own beginnings spent with days/weeks of learning and tweaking and it was not easy time, wasn’t it?. We should minimize this experience for today’s users (we are many years beyond these painful beginnings!!!). Second, each newcomer definitely contributes to Fedora (!!!) – Even the recommendation to the others is contribution. Lot’s of these newcomers report just bugs only but some of them can participate to documentation or even to code update during the time. If we ignore them at the beginning, Fedora user base will not grow and these people will contribute somewhere else once they technically grow up (e.g. support Ubuntu but not Fedora).
There are more points where I see space for improvement or discussion at least but then I would write a book and not just comment in this blog… 😉

Anyway, thanks for interest to motivate standard users to work and stay with Fedora. It is a great system.