I really wonder who the hell is buying and using this. They have 123.777 accounts, ripple forum is almost dead. Makes no sense.
Well to be honest: instantaneous transactions (and still decentralised), fees that are gonna be low 5ever (unlike BTC), no wasted resources in mining, no mining cartels & centralisation and possibility of a 51% attack, and you can put any currency or asset in the network.
I'm not a fanboy, but aside from the "stock-like distribution", Ripple is not that bad at all...