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Why I prefer Ubuntu over other distros

Updated on: January 25 - 2025

Table of contents

User interface

During my time on Linux I realized that I don't particularly like the design of any of the desktop environments besides GNOME. Unfortunately, stock GNOME is attrocious. It lacks basic features present in operating systems since the 2000s, making it a pain to use for me.

Ubuntu modifies their GNOME in a way that turns it into a usable desktop environment while keeping the sexy GTK design. And they do other stuff like changing the font to their own, adding a panel to the left to resemble Unity and so on. Ubuntu is very pretty while still being usable.

All of this can be replicated on other distributions, even via a script I made, but Ubuntu comes nearly perfect out of the box, just the way I like it.

Admittedly, the latest GNOME on Ubuntu 24.04 changed the way menus behave (previously, you howered over the item for new ones to appear to the right, like on any other DE, but now you have to click on the items as if you were using a fucking tablet). I really dislike stupid changes, so my next distro will likely be Kubuntu/Debian with KDE that I will make resemble Unity. Or I will stick to 22.04 for more years, who cares really. I don't use Linux on my main machine anyways.

Snap

What I like about it

Many people consider it the worst package format to ever exist, created solely to take over the Linux world. But when you actually use it you learn just how useful it is.

For example, I use yt-dlp quite a lot and keeping it up to date is a must considering YouTube likes to change stuff in their API. Snap is perfect for this usecase. When there is a new version, I will receive it as soon as snap checks for updates, and it will be automatically installed.

Cleaner commands

There is no need to type out full package names like with flatpak.


Configuration in plain sight

With flatpak I would have to search up where the hell is the configuration directory. With Snap, it's right in my home directory.

Update indicators in the dock

As far as I'm aware this only works in Ubuntu, but it's something that was a thing in Unity and now it's back. It's a little but a very cool thing.

Misconceptions about Snap

Canonical created Snaps just to have their own packaging format

They were created at the same time as Flatpak. Canonical spent millions on their development and kept developing them instead of adopting a new format that could, and still can do less than Snaps (For example Ubuntu Core, the IoT edition of Ubuntu, consists of only snaps and even the kernel is a snap)

You can read more in this Discourse thread where I got this info from. The Tech Over Tea podcast with Alan Pope is also a good source of information about Snaps in particular.

Ubuntu doesn't ship with flatpak by default because they want to push snaps instead

Flatpak in Ubuntu is maintained by the community and is a part of the Universe repository. Therefore it cannot ship with Ubuntu by default. The default install doesn't ship with any community maintained software. Just like Fedora doesn't ship with snap because they don't want to be responsible for it, Ubuntu doesn't want to be responsible for flatpak functioning well on their distro.

Snap is proprietary

Snap is FOSS except for the back end of their server. Snaps can be installed locally, all you have to do is sudo snap install app.snap

Proprietary backend is not a problem for anyone using the internet. There has been an open source implementation of snapcraft but no one gave a fuck just like with Launchpad. You can read more about it in this article.

Canonical is literally forcing me to use a snap if I use apt

Let's look at what is actually going on. Canonical chose not to maintain Firefox and several other packages as .debs. That's it. When you do apt install firefox it installs the firefox .deb, which is now a meta package. The alternative to this super evil thing is for apt to just throw an error about not being able to find the package.

Canonical did not modify apt to push Snaps or anything else that the crazy people online try to tell you. If you want to demand what should a company maintain and what not, I don't know what to tell you. Mozilla maintains their own .deb version if you really want it.

Snaps are slow

They used to be. Now they perform well with a slower initial startup. But ultimately this depends your hardware. A container will always be heavier than a regular package. Try it out for yourself and see whether its speed is enough.

Nobody likes snaps, developers are forced to use it because Ubuntu is popular

Some developers choose it because it fits their software better. A browser needs automatic updates, and Snap can provide just that. It can also sandbox chromium better than flatpak, according to Vivaldi.

VLC is also packaged as a Snap instead of flatpak as the official method for Linux. Claiming that developers are forced to use it and hate it is simply false.

System stability and support

Admittedly there were times when Ubuntu would freeze up and I had to restart the computer by holding down the power button. Shit happens I suppose.

But not a single update broke my system. And since I only stick to the LTS releases, I don't have to worry about it.

Thanks to Ubuntu Pro, which is free, I don't have to upgrade to a new version if I don't want to. This isn't a benefit to everyone but having such a long support as an option is nice.

Software availability

Everything that works on Linux supports Ubuntu. This is because it has been the most popular Linux distribution, even if it doesn't seem that way from the ammount of complains you heard about it online.

When people say Ubuntu is the Windows of the Linux world they always mean it negatively, but it's not far from truth in a way that you don't have to think whether software is compatible with it.

Things I don't like

No pre installed flatpak and flathub

Admittedly this isn't out of malice, as explained in the Snap section, but it would still be nice

No flatpak integration in the default app store

This can be mitigated by just using gnome-software and gnome-software-plugin-snap. It really only takes a few seconds.

The way bugs are handled

Tbh I don't like how they approach bug reports at all. When I reported an issue on Bluefin's website it got fixed literally within hours. Its devs care about details like that. Ubuntu devs? As long as the bug is not causing devices to burst up in flames it's fine.

Case in point: the new flutter installer being a broken piece of shit ever since it was introduced with no effort being made to fix it. (That one really makes me mad because in any new video I see the new installer runs into errors or crashes) Or how 24.04's desktop icons extension contains a bug with a fix ready to be released - it just isn't.

But to be fair this LTS used to be muuuch worse upon launch. So at least some minimal effort is being done to fix it.

How I would improve it

This is how --> I <-- would make Ubuntu better. Not an obective analysis of what Ubuntu should do to improve.