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BGFG
August 23rd, 2008, 06:42 AM
Not necessarily coding, but the kernel + whatever accompanying packages the devs decide.
I love open source.
This thread was inspired by OpenGEU 8.04 Beta. Saw it on softpedia. Of course, i suppose creating a live cd or just an install is no joke but i suddenly get why there are so so many distros out there.

For a second i started, 'so why don't they just consolidate........'

But then, where would the fun be ?

chris4585
August 23rd, 2008, 06:52 AM
a distro can be hard to define, it depends on your point of view.

BGFG
August 23rd, 2008, 06:53 AM
So then i should say flavour ?

chris4585
August 23rd, 2008, 07:07 AM
Like I said it really depends, but thanks for mentioning the term flavor, I'm building a 'remix' of Ubuntu atm, and I've had a hard time saying to myself that it is a distro, or will be a distro (not released yet) I'd much rather call it a flavor of Ubuntu, It just sounds better, like more elegants to it

SunnyRabbiera
August 23rd, 2008, 08:52 AM
Well there are many classes:
Distributions:
Distributions are typically linux variants that are not really based on another.
Debian, Redhat, Gentoo and Slackware are probably the most "pure" linux distributions as Mandriva, Suse and Ubuntu have ties to at least one of them... Mandriva is based on Redhat, Suse was at one time was based on Slack and Ubuntu is based on Debian.
Distributions like Ubuntu and Mandriva more or less fit in a middle catagory between a flavor and a distribution but they can stand independently.

Flavors:
Flavors are variants that have ties to another linux distro, Mepis, Linux Mint, Sabayon are all based on top of another distro... Mepis is based on Debian and uses its repositories, Linux mint is based on Ubuntu and uses its repositories and Sabayon is based on Gentoo and can use its compilers and such.
But sometimes the flavors have features that might be an improvement on the original, Mepis has a bunch of drivers and such to make linux transition easier, Linux mint has a great package updater that actually handles things better then Ubuntu's default updater in my opinion.
Sadly these are dismissed as amateur distributions but they serve a purpose trust me.

Remixes:
Remixes are fan contributed variants of a popular linux distro/ flavor, often having user made bug fixes and such but normally dont offer much more then the normal version...
Ubuntu's religious variants, the Gnome remix of PClinux cant really be called flavors or pure distributions and offer little then basic re branding and such.

zoe-scutterbug
August 24th, 2008, 01:41 AM
I see Linux as a living tree, vibrant healthy and strong, with distributions as major branches...full of fruit, leading on to smaller branches ...some green and flowering.

zoe