"If Ubuntu were a character in a movie, who would it be?" Canonical asks in X and it doesn't go as well as expected.

  • Canonical asks which movie character Ubuntu would be
  • Mixed responses, between criticism and praise
  • Ubuntu remains the king of Linux on the desktop
Pablinux

4 minutes

What movie character would Ubuntu be?

Ubuntu It's not what it used to be. Not anymore. Not exactly the same. When I first tried it, and for several years after, it was a Linux distribution with a philosophy, but it has been changing in ways that the community isn't thrilled with. I think the most controversial changes began back in 2016, when they released Ubuntu 16.04 and included snap packages. Then they made other moves, and many have decided to change their ways. Still, it's worth noting that it remains the most widely used Linux-based operating system in the world.

A few hours ago, the Ubuntu account on the social network X (formerly Twitter) launched a question: if Ubuntu were a character in a movie, which one would it be? And it hasn't worked out for him tan good as expected. Being the preferred option of many, it is normal to see positive comments from people saying it would be Toni Stark (Iron Man) or Captain America, but there are other, somewhat less optimistic responses.

Ubuntu is no longer so special for part of the community, graphical documentation

I skimmed the thread because I knew this was coming. The first response that caught my eye was the following, with an image that reflects how corporate interests are tampering with open source software and, ultimately, Ubuntu manipulates the end user into believing things that aren't true. In case you're wondering, the image is from The Lord of the Rings.

Just below that response, at least at the time of writing, appeared the following, featuring the Goonies character who was initially thought to be a monster. This image is often used on social media to describe people with mental disabilities, and the reason is that the user who posted it doesn't agree with the requirement to use Snap and Wayland packages.

Maybe partly because of the snaps, someone else posted this image of him with extreme obesity. It's from a movie I've seen, but whose name I couldn't remember until I described the scene to ChatGPT: it's from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Probably, and although there is a minimal installation option, it's a criticism of the bloatware after a fresh installation.

I don't quite understand the following one, but it doesn't seem positive. It features WALL-E, the endearing robot from the movie of the same name. There's a meme in which WALL-E appears as Windows and Eve, another much more modern robot, as Mac. We might assume the meaning is that Ubuntu is something rudimentary.

Another criticism of the mandatory use of snaps and Wayland:

Among the other critical responses, several also stand out that Ubuntu would be Cipher, who betrays the entire rebel team because he wants to return to living happily in ignorance, or tyrants like the emperor in Gladiator.

Is it as bad as they say?

No, not at all. There are also positive responses, such as that it's the best distribution to get started with Linux. They also say it's like Yoda from Star Wars: wise and reliable. But the truth is that it's no longer the most popular among average Linux users. Many are opting for Ubuntu-based distributions, but without certain impositions, as is the case with Linux MintOthers decide to look further up the ladder and install Debian, which is compatible with Ubuntu software and tutorials and is also supposedly super-stable.

For my part, I decided to switch to Manjaro. I tried it out to test it out and gather more information, and I stayed because it fits what I need. Still, even with criticism, Ubuntu remains king.