PJ's comment when she posted this story in newspicks

That's because the parent had no meaningful information for me to dispute. Bruce will need to elaborate on his comments for someone to give any meaningful response. For example, why does Bruce feel that Ubuntu's popularity is unjustified? Have Canonical or Ubuntu supporters done something unethical to artificially inflate the popularity of the distro? If so, I would like to hear about it.

Why does Bruce feel odd about what Ubuntu got from Debian? As long as the licenses are respected then the Ubuntu team is free to use the software as they see fit. That is one of the costs of freedom; users may use your software in ways that you do not approve. If that's a problem then you should have been more careful in your licensing.

I see the popularity of Ubuntu as an indication that Canonical and the Ubuntu community have done something right. Something was lacking in desktop Linux distros and Ubuntu filled that void. Even though other distros have improved in the meantime, Ubuntu continues to enjoy the first-mover advantage.

Nothing is stopping a community distro from achieving the same level of popularity. Talk is cheap. It's going to take strong leadership, a solid vision, and enough differentiation for a new distro to position itself as a viable alternative. Ubuntu had all three of those qualities to bring it to where it is today. I'm not confident that a community distro can focus itself well enough to overtake Ubuntu. There are too many stakeholders and decision makers with conflicting agendas.