I've always liked what vagrant did for the other systems (re: non-linux). However, with this change, it seems they are indeed going in this direction and, well, that is a shame. I might be missing something but it seems they would do much better to build on other tech.
The best I've seen is Ubuntu and how it does it (using libvirt among others, KVM etc - http://www.ubuntu.com/business/server/virtualisation). Would be awesome if they were all playing well together. And, perhaps, vagrant is going to actually do that in the future.
Ubuntu's business server is hardly something as turn-key as vagrant.
We use Ubuntu on EC2 and Canonical has made so many atrocious decisions since the release of 10.04, I am not sure if I ever want to run anything from them again. =( We are however heavily invested with custom PPAs and all that.
Back to Vagrant - as others said before: `vagrant up` and productivity starts. At work I manage local and remote people and they all work with Vagrant. It works the same for developers and frontend people. And most importantly: it works.
Yes, there are ins and outs, but they are mostly Virtualbox related and I cannot wait until other virtualization is supported.
Everywhere I look with Ubuntu they are making the right decision, so I'm not sure which decisions you mean. Can you elaborate?
My thoughts are:
Server: Juju is just plain awesome. If you manage hundreds or thousands of servers, it is Fan-Freakin'-tastic. Seriously, that alone is worth the price of admission.
They backed openstack very early, which looks like the winner. They are THE option for EC2. Heck, even Azure is picking up Ubuntu. More here: http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud If I was deploying in the Cloud, there is no other OS I would choose (and I am). IMO, it would be crazy to not use Ubuntu.
Desktop: Unity is an interesting choice, and if you asked me 3 years ago I would probably have said it was a bad choice, but seeing the state of GNOME these days, it is easily the best choice Canonical has made in the past few years.
And then there are the demo products like Ubuntu for Android, which is just plain awesome. The TV, though I'm not sure how viable it is as a commercial entity, is slick. And there is talk of a phone/tablet. Is there room for a third or fourth person in this market? With the patent problems, probably, I don't know. Though, I have to admit, I'd like to see what an Ubuntu phone and tablet would look like!
The best I've seen is Ubuntu and how it does it (using libvirt among others, KVM etc - http://www.ubuntu.com/business/server/virtualisation). Would be awesome if they were all playing well together. And, perhaps, vagrant is going to actually do that in the future.