For the better part of the last 2 decades, recommending Ubuntu to someone that was new to Linux was more of a reflex than a true reflection of what that user might need. It was the distro that made Linux seem more approachable, and every other option came with a caveat of some sort. The knee-jerk recommendation is fading fast amongst online circles, with many users turning to Fedora and its various spin-off flavors for first-time users. And yet, Ubuntu is still one of the most popular Linux distros on the planet for desktop use, and it comes down to one primary feature that Fedora has no interest in competing on.