Re: Too many Linux?

beck wrote:

> Just wondering why we have so many linux distributions when many of them
> are the same with a slightly different look?

Thats like asking "why are there so many human beings when they're all just
the same with a slightly different look?". Because the barriers to creating
a distro are much lower than the barriers to creating, eg a commercial
operating system, there will always be thousands of different distros
serving particular needs. There is probably no theoretical limit on the
number of distros. http://distrowatch.com/ for the full grisly details.

> You have the KDE desktop and the Gnome desktop (maybe some more) but
> looking at the contents of other distributions, apart from the slightly
> different looks they all seem to come with the same programs.
>
> So really I am curious as to why we have so many to choose from and what
> really can one offer that another doesn't have?

Because that's the whole free software ethos. Free software is written
usually by someone to complete a specific task, and then the author thinks
"hey maybe someone else could do something with this" and they release a
tarball, and if other people find it useful and feed back into it,
eventually you end up with a mature project.
So the same goes for distros; someone packages up a distro to fulfill a
specific need, and then decides to release it to the general public because
they think other people might find it useful. Eventually enough people find
it useful, and enough people contribute back to it, so it grows into
something better.
So if you find a free software project useful, or you like a particular
distro, contribute to it and it will grow. Closed source software that
no-one finds useful just disappears over time. Free source code is just
like a bit of DNA that sits there until someone propagates it by mixing in
a little of their own source code to create something new. A binary with no
sources that no-one wants to use is like a mouldy bit of meat. You can't do
anything with it to revive it once it's sat there unused for too long.

If, as you say, they all come with the same programs, then surely, they're
all really just the same distro.

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