>Ubuntu ships without make, Ruby or Python
Since when does Ubuntu ship without make and python? Python 2.X has been included in standard installations for quite a few releases now. I also can't remember the last time I had to manually install make.
A barebones install might not have ruby or python. When I install it as a server I try to reduce the packages to a minimum and build up from there. I usually try to a network install as well (for Ubuntu or CentOS).
I would rather put on whatever I want later.
A default Ubuntu install I think has Python on board. Not as sure about Ruby.
Any time I set up an new virtual machine with some variety of Linux, I have to install some stuff to allow the VMWare extension to build. The exact requirements change from version to version, but it never worked out of the box (and I am not only talking about kernel headers here).
Actually, the latest version of Ubuntu seems to include that extension out of the box, which is friggin awesome!
By the way, I think that this is not a problem at all. I'd prefer a clean, lean system to Windows any day.