Why are there so many different Linux distros when they're all basically the same underneath apart from with different package managers.
>inb4 I'd just like to interject for a moment...
>>53846401
Because some respect freedom and some don't
>>53846401
So you have a functional system out of the box with (hopefully) software that you'll use.
>>53846401
Because eventually a project becomes so large that either the sweeping change of a small group isn't going to be implemented fast enough or ever at all if things become too political.
Aside from that it can be used as a way to showcase a set of software pre-installed when it is a derivative work, it can be a technical decision in something unique like Gentoo or perhaps just a fun side project for someone like Crunchbang.
Priorities, technical decisions, philosophy and community all play large roles and then sometimes business concerns as well in the case of rhel, canonical and suse.
>>53846710
I'd also like to mention that most derivatives are fairly useless, specifically those of Ubuntu but there is room for many distributions in the world so long as we don't have as much reinventing of the wheel of the underlying architectures as we do of the userspace. I'm glad Hurd and other kernels exist but I don't think Gnu/Linux would be as strong as it is today without a common base between distros.
There's really only Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu. Everything else is based on these and doesn't really count as distros.
>not installing arch from scratch and setting up your own shit
kek
>>53846401
Generally a small team of people has some problem with the upstream distros and decides to repackage the default configs and packages to suit some target group. These become increasingly fragmented and useless as project politics and bullshit gets out of hand.
The only reason to use any of them is to support the project really, since you can generally do everything they're doing with an upstream distro of your choice.
Can someone please explain to me why I can't just install apt on Arch and add the Ubuntu repos? Is there really that much different under the hood? And why do people who want customization not just use the Ubuntu minimal install? Then you can just use apt long enough to install your preferred package manager and then just add the programs you want. Do other distros actually offer significant under the hood advantages?
>>53848178
>look how 1337 i am mom
