Ubuntu users.

As Linux gains ground on the desktop Ubuntu in particular is gaining in popularity. Partly because it has some ill-conceived helper programs. I say perceived because of they mentality they give to users. Users of the Ubuntu family of distributions are usually refugies from MS Windows so while the two may go together well, in reality those users are prone to giving out some outstandinly bad information when someone, also using Ubuntu, has a problem. What is worse is when I see someone I have known for years who after years and years of using a proper Linux distribution turns to Ubuntu and then ends up passing on bad information because he or she has determined that to get him or her self up to scratch on his or her new install he or she  starts to follow what he or she sees many others doing.

One of the main problems Ubuntu users have is when there is a need to compile something. As rare as this may be it does crop up from time to time. When it does the information given is usually poor at best and downright dangerous at worse.

I have seen it time and time again where a user it told "Do this as root" or "Do it via sudo". This is just plain wrong. No program on the Linux platform has ever needed root privilidges to build. To install system wide, yes, but even that is not always required. One can simply install to ones own home directory but i digress a little. This need to do any building of source code as root is just one of the many bad advice I see given out to Ubuntu users.

And the longer such bad information is given out the more it becomes ingrained that that bad information is correct.  And you wonder why I have a dislike for Ubuntu users even though my wife and eldest child uses it.

I have for a long time said that Ubuntu is dangerous for the whole Linux community and the more people who use it the worse the situation becomes.