let’s just say that “your mileage may vary”, as they say. i have had the opposite experience when it comes to ubuntu. right now Ibex is running so perfect, i can’t imagine a better experience. but isn’t that what it’s all about? no distro will please everybody, and that’s a good thing. it creates healthy competition amongst the various distros.
no matter which distro becomes “big” really does not matter in the end, the bottom line is that it helps everyone when a newcomer gets involved.
my fav distros right now:
ubuntu/debian
mandriva
puppy
opensuse
anything else is just for playing around.
i do agree with you on the fedora thing though. i had the most god awful experience with it. i have the most generic rig you can imagine, and every distro works pretty well on my equipment. so i know it wasn’t my hardware. i won’t be trying fedora again for a while. peace.