[sf-lug] Linux distros

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Justin Noor (justinnoor.io at gmail.com):

> Honestly I asked out of astonishment. 

Yeah, I'm with you.  It really is a little astonishing.  Bobbie pointed
to part of the reason: diversification into many niches.  However, IMO
that's nowhere near enough explanation to account for several hundred
currently active distributions.  IMO, to account for that, you have to 
add a couple of other factors:

1.  Just because your MyOwnDamneDistro sports distinct branding (e.g., its
own name) doesn't mean you're doing all the work.  Many distros are only
very thinly different derivatives of a better-known distribution.

2.  The urge to tinker and then to put out your own shingle to denote
the results is widely felt.  Of course, most of the time those results
become unmaintained pretty quickly; thus Distrowatch's efforts to
classify the distros it tracks as 'Active', 'Dormant', 'Discontinued',
etc.

Or, to state it more concisely, it's trivial to declare a vanity distro
into existence (at least for a while), and so many people do.


> I’ve been so enveloped in my own bubble, I guess lost touch with all
> these new distros. Until recently I had never heard of distros like
> Puppy, Big Dog, Slack Dog, Wack Dog, Cappuccino, Frappaccino,
> Parakeet, Beaver, Crab, and the other few hundred.

Puppy Linux is well known and has a respected history (launched 2003)
-- even though most people's reasons for using it are delusional and a
bit sad.[1]   But yes, there are ones every bit as absurd and obscure as
the imaginary ones comprising the rest of your list.

> For novelty, hobby, or custom distros, Linux From Scratch would seem like a
> wise option.

I could win bar bets, most days, by wagering that the person bringing up 
Linux from Scratch on a mailing list is doing so just in hopes of
getting some free entertainment value out of the response, and has
absolutely no idea what it's good for.


[1] I could win yet more bar bets wagering that the average person
installing Puppy Linux to a PeeCee hard drive picked it solely because
he/she cannot be bothered to figure out how to do anything but a default
installation, ergo thinks the only way to fit onto an old, small hard
drive is to use a tiny distribution.