1. Kernel: Ever heard of LTS enablement stacks? <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack</a><p>2. Upstart: Works for me. I like systemd too, but I'm not going to switch distros to get it.<p>3. Auto-restart: As you said, it's a Debian thing. If you really don't like it, look into /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d<p>4. MySQL: sudo apt-get install mariadb-server (yeah, it's in the official repo)<p>5. Pollinate & AppArmor: If you don't want them, disable them.<p>6. Compiz & Mir: Use another desktop environment. Also, in case you missed the news, Mir has been postponed indefinitely.
The author suggests Arch Linux for Desktop use. I used Arch for 2 years and liked it. It still runs on my raspberry.<p>I wouldn't recommend it for any serious work where downtime costs you money though.
There are just too many occasions where Arch renders your Desktop unusable because of an upgrade. You have to pay close attention to the news on the homepage for any system breaking changes (which is kind of ridiculous). And even then a system may occasionally render your system unbootable just because.
Ubuntu is entrenched, there is no equivalent distro that combines the ease of use of a desktop system with the package support for dev and server.<p>Better to use it and change the parts we don't like until the changes become the norm -- ubuntu's strength is in its community. Linux infighting and fracturing over pedantic differences is what keeps it from becoming a first-class desktop OS for the common user.
My biggest disappointment was that I now have to choose between the ability to adjust my screen brightness and the ability for my screen not to stay black after suspend (forcing me to reboot my machine). While I'm sure this will be fixed, I was surprised the release went out like this since based on the bug report, several other users are experiencing the same issue.
The best reason of all has nothing to do with any of this: most Tier-1 hardware and software vendors don't support Ubuntu. For those of us who actually run server farms, Ubuntu is simply not a long-term viable option.<p>(And yes, Upstart is a steaming pile of technology.)
You can come up with similar "reasons"(read: bullshit) for any distro(or Operating System).<p>In terms of cloud, Ubuntu is popular, if I look at the desktop I get the same result. So apparently they are doing something right.<p>If we want to judge Linux distro releases we should judge them by facts that matter to real users, not made up ones. Also we can't really talk about Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop in the same thread, even though a lot of the base system is the same, these areas have radically different requirements.