For several years, Ubuntu has been synonymous with user-friendliness. A Web search quickly unearths dozens of articles that suggest that Ubuntu is the distribution you should give non-technical people to introduce them to GNU/Linux. It even won a "Most User-Friendly Linux Distribution" award, which you might think confirms its status.

However, like all conventional wisdom, this association is worth exploring. For one thing, you have to wonder whether comparisons for user-friendliness have any relevance in free and open source software (FOSS). For another, what exactly are the characteristics of user-friendliness? Moreover, does stressing user-friendliness mean ignoring other values -- perhaps equally important ones?

Comparisons in FOSS

One problem I immediately have with titles like the "Most User-Friendly Linux Distribution" is that they seem more a ploy for commercial marketing than anything that applies to the world of FOSS development.

These comparative claims make little sense in FOSS in that -- as anyone who has tried more than one distribution can tell you -- much of the user-experience is determined by the desktop. Distributions play a role, of course, in assembling the selection of software and making sure that everything works together. However, for several years now, I’ve seen more innovation in the form of new applications and features in releases of GNOME or KDE than in any distribution. For the casual user, the difference between Ubuntu and any other distribution is fairly minimal, and often more a case of finishing details than of functionality.

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