Consider switching to ubuntu as default base image for runners

[ScottGuymer]

Ubuntu is often the only supported Linux distro by the public GH runners and several the available actions only work on ubuntu.

Should we consider switching over to using ubuntu by default?

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had activity in the last 30 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[Taytay]

I am new to this repo (thank you for creating and open sourcing it!) so this is newbie feedback, but I find myself wanting this to be as close to a drop-in replacement for Github's runners as possible. As such, I would love it if there was an easy way to get a runner that looks and operates just like theirs does, except in my infrastructure. I would think that basing the default runner on Ubuntu, at the very least, would be a great step in that direction, and would likely lead to less friction down the road. (Admitedly, I don't know what the implications/downsides are.)

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had activity in the last 30 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[rlove]

We build Amazon Image Builder to spin up custom images on Amazon Linux.

The reason I chose Amazon Linux is that most of my employers' servers & containers are Amazon Linux based.

However, given that I am open to this idea, as I thought the same thing initially.

[crohr]

I am new to this repo (thank you for creating and open sourcing it!) so this is newbie feedback, but I find myself wanting this to be as close to a drop-in replacement for Github's runners as possible. As such, I would love it if there was an easy way to get a runner that looks and operates just like theirs does, except in my infrastructure. I would think that basing the default runner on Ubuntu, at the very least, would be a great step in that direction, and would likely lead to less friction down the road. (Admitedly, I don't know what the implications/downsides are.)

@Taytay If you want 1-1 workflow compatibility with GitHub, I would suggest you look at https://github.com/runs-on/runs-on. Official runner images are automatically published as AMI images for AWS and can be used as a drop-in replacement for your workflows.