diff --git a/debian-enable-root.sh b/debian-enable-root.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 392e0b4..0000000
--- a/debian-enable-root.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-#
-# This script is called from prepare-iaas-debian after logging in via ssh as
-# the default "debian" user
-#
-set -ex
-
-sudo cp -r /home/debian/.ssh /root/
-sudo chown -R root:root /root/.ssh
-sudo chmod 700 /root/.ssh
-sudo chmod 600 /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
diff --git a/iaas-enable-root.sh b/iaas-enable-root.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..d6bb107
--- /dev/null
+++ b/iaas-enable-root.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# This script is called from prepare-iaas-$os after logging in via ssh as
+# the default user existing in cloud images
+#
+set -ex
+
+os=$(lsb_release -si | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
+if [ "$os" != "ubuntu" ] && [ "$os" != "debian" ]; then
+    echo "unsupported os: '$os'"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+sudo cp -r /home/"$os"/.ssh /root/
+sudo chown -R root:root /root/.ssh
+sudo chmod 700 /root/.ssh
+sudo chmod 600 /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
diff --git a/debian-setup.sh b/iaas-setup.sh
similarity index 67%
rename from debian-setup.sh
rename to iaas-setup.sh
index 56e923a..30c9db0 100755
--- a/debian-setup.sh
+++ b/iaas-setup.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,16 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
-# This script is called from prepare-iaas-debian after logging in over ssh as
+# This script is called from prepare-iaas-$os after logging in over ssh as
 # the root user
 #
 set -x
 
+os=$(lsb_release -si | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
+if [ "$os" != "ubuntu" ] && [ "$os" != "debian" ]; then
+    echo "unsupported os: '$os'"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 # Get rid of ugly perl messages when running from macOS:
 # ===
 # apt-listchanges: Reading changelogs...
@@ -20,26 +26,27 @@ set -x
 # ===
 export LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8
 
-# Make sure there is no systemd process running as "debian" after the "enable
-# root" step in prepare-iaas-debian. If there are any proceses still running as
-# the "debian" user the "userdel" command below will fail.
+# Make sure there is no systemd process running as the initial cloud image user
+# # after the "enable root" step in prepare-iaas-$os. If there are any #
+# proceses still running as the specified user the "userdel" command # below
+# will fail.
 #
 # Depending on how long we have waited between running the "enable root"
 # script and this one it is possible the process has timed out on its own,
 # so run this command before doing "set -e" in case there is no process
 # to match.
-pkill -u debian -xf "/lib/systemd/systemd --user"
+pkill -u "$os" -xf "/lib/systemd/systemd --user"
 
 # Make sure the process has gone away before continuing
 sleep_seconds=1
 attempt=1
 max_attempts=10
-while pgrep -u debian -xf "/lib/systemd/systemd --user"; do
+while pgrep -u "$os" -xf "/lib/systemd/systemd --user"; do
     if [ $attempt -gt $max_attempts ]; then
         echo "failed waiting for systemd process to exit, please investigate"
         exit 1
     fi
-    echo "systemd process still running as debian user, this is attempt $attempt out of $max_attempts, sleeping for $sleep_seconds seconds..."
+    echo "systemd process still running as '$os' user, this is attempt $attempt out of $max_attempts, sleeping for $sleep_seconds seconds..."
     sleep $sleep_seconds
     attempt=$((attempt + 1))
 done
@@ -49,9 +56,9 @@ set -e
 
 # While the man page for "userdel" recommends using "deluser" we can not
 # run "deluser" with "--remove-home" without installing more than the
-# already included `perl-base` package, so stick with the low level
-# utility.
-userdel --remove debian
+# already included `perl-base` package on debian, so stick with the low
+# level utility.
+userdel --remove "$os"
 rm /etc/sudoers.d/*
 
 # Make sure en_US.UTF-8 is present in the system, expected by at least
diff --git a/prepare-iaas-debian b/prepare-iaas-debian
index 4147883..cf36fb3 100755
--- a/prepare-iaas-debian
+++ b/prepare-iaas-debian
@@ -17,12 +17,9 @@ set -x
 script_dir=$(dirname "$0")
 
 # The reason for running two separate logins is that it is tricky to
-# remove the initial debian user while logged in as that same user:
+# remove the initial user while logged in as that same user:
 # ===
-# Removing user `debian' ...
-# Warning: group `debian' has no more members.
-# userdel: user debian is currently used by process 12081
-# /usr/sbin/deluser: `/sbin/userdel debian' returned error code 8. Exiting.
+# userdel: user debian is currently used by process 1082
 # ===
-ssh "debian@${ip}" "bash -s" < "$script_dir"/debian-enable-root.sh
-ssh "root@${ip}" "bash -s" < "$script_dir"/debian-setup.sh
+ssh "debian@${ip}" "bash -s" < "$script_dir"/iaas-enable-root.sh
+ssh "root@${ip}" "bash -s" < "$script_dir"/iaas-setup.sh
diff --git a/prepare-iaas-ubuntu b/prepare-iaas-ubuntu
index 3fdff8d..c21bf87 100755
--- a/prepare-iaas-ubuntu
+++ b/prepare-iaas-ubuntu
@@ -12,13 +12,14 @@ fi
 
 set -x
 
-ssh "ubuntu@${ip}" sudo cp -r /home/ubuntu/.ssh /root/
-ssh "ubuntu@${ip}" sudo chown -R root:root /root/.ssh
-ssh "ubuntu@${ip}" sudo chmod 700 /root/.ssh
-ssh "ubuntu@${ip}" sudo chmod 600 /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
-ssh "root@${ip}" deluser ubuntu
-ssh "root@${ip}" rm /home/ubuntu -rf
-ssh "root@${ip}" rm /etc/sudoers.d/*
-ssh "root@${ip}" DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" apt-get -y update
-ssh "root@${ip}" DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confnew" --fix-broken --assume-yes dist-upgrade
-ssh "root@${ip}" reboot
+# Make sure we read the additional scripts from the same directory as
+# this script is located at
+script_dir=$(dirname "$0")
+
+# The reason for running two separate logins is that it is tricky to
+# remove the initial user while logged in as that same user:
+# ===
+# userdel: user ubuntu is currently used by process 44063
+# ===
+ssh "ubuntu@${ip}" "bash -s" < "$script_dir"/iaas-enable-root.sh
+ssh "root@${ip}" "bash -s" < "$script_dir"/iaas-setup.sh