Might not be a popular opinion these days but I am really glad there exists a distro like Ubuntu that provides a curated experience that just works out of the box.

• Hardware manufacturers and software developers formally test and certify it. For example, the new Framework 13 pro can be shipped with Ubuntu preinstalled as well as Lenovo Thinkpads, Dell, etc which all ship or formally support Ubuntu. Steam still only officially supports Ubuntu outside of Steam OS IIRC.

• It is the defacto for AI, data science and other non-swe communities and increasingly popular server and cloud option.

• Snap gets a lot of hate but it has technical capabilities that flatpak doesn’t (CLI programs, even being able to handle kernels, etc). The prepackaged rocm and cuda snaps and models is a great example of something other distros can’t easily do.

• They give free enterprise level features like live patching and security centre for individuals.

• The UX is comfortable for both windows and Mac users with their prepackaged and maintained gnome extensions that make gnome usable and familiar.

• It provides a flexible upgrade pattern with LTS with or without HWE and 6 month cadence.

For people that just want to get to work Ubuntu still is one of the best options. Looking forward to this release!

Time to wait another year and a half before this is finally supported out of the box by every framework