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Well, perhaps the reason folks are so adulatory towards K/Ubuntu is that they *don't* have issues with installing it. :-)

I'm sorry you had problems, but don't judge an entire distro (and, most importantly, those who like it) because of the fact that it didn't work for you.

I said in the comment that this wasn't the first time I'd had issues with K/Ubuntu, so while I am judging it on my experience (besides, why the heck not?) I am also judging it on 3-4 iterations rather than one.

A glance through Ubuntu's forums will show that since it came onto the scene Ubuntu has suffered from just as many bugs and difficulties as any other distro. The difference lies in the simply absurd levels of hype that now accompany it. Ubuntu hasn't yet been credited with creating the world in seven days or making contact with alien civilizations but you'd be forgiven for thinking that's only a matter of time.

I don't happen to think the hype all that useful: eventually it will backfire as these things always do, not least when folks start to notice that Ubuntu isn't really doing anything that other distros don't do. The fallout will effect all of Linux and not just this one distro.

It's not as much hype as brand recognition. People aren't saying that K/Ubuntu is technically better than other distributions, but rather that it is more polished and newbie-friendly.

I don't think hyperbole is really useful in the context of this discussion. Honestly, I'm a Ubuntu user and I would never say it's the *best* distro, because such a thing doesn't exist, and you'd be hard-pressed to find any Ubuntu user that would make this claim either. In other words, folks *already* know ubuntu isn't really doing anything other distros don't do. After all, it's all Linux - as soon as one distro does something good, other distros usually follow suit. Similarly, it's quite normal that Ubuntu has had just as many bugs as other distros, because - as is most often the case, for any distro - the majority of bugs are upstream.

What Ubuntu does have, however, is name recognition and effective branding, and as inane as this may sound, that goes a very long way.

To bring this back on-topic (a little bit), I'll say that Mandriva (then Mandrake) was the first distro I tried, and as such it holds a special place in my heart. I'll give the new version a try, and maybe some day I'll even use it again as my regular OS. Ultimately, as I said earlier, it's all Linux, so it's not really relevant *what* distro you run.