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19 07 2007

359 Linux Distributions!

Posted by Alan in Technology

Too Many Linux Distros Make For Open Source Mess - Wolfe’s Den Blog - InformationWeek

I wonder how many of those actually get used by a reasonable number of people. I suspect the list of “main distributions” is probably only about 10-15. However, this kind of thing really doesn’t help convince people to pick up Linux.

Its this kind of thing that made me really like all the publicity Ubuntu was getting a couple of months ago. Playing up desktop-oriented distributions in the media is what’ll help, rather than confusing people.

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2 Responses to “359 Linux Distributions!”
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  1. Pie Man 70 says:
    July 20, 2007 at 11:13

    I think its mostly a fuss over nothing, yes there are a squillion distros, but providing tehre is general compatability for hardware and software between those, or even teh top 10 everything should be fine.

    Agree with the publicising of Ubuntu though, my advice to anyoen marketing Linux to us regular lunkheads, don’t show command lines being needed anywhere. The minute you open one of those command boxes I’m tuning out.

  2. Alan says:
    July 20, 2007 at 14:47

    I agree. Out of those 359, people will probably encounter very few, unless they’re looking for a distribution optimised for a specific task.

    In industry, they only really care about 2: Redhat and SuSE, while Ubuntu seems to be really taking off as the home desktop of choice.

    I think the key is not to bang on about there being 359 distributions, but instead focus on what those distributions are for.

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