The majority of Linux distributions out there seem to be over-engineering their method of distribution. They are not giving us a new distribution of Linux. They are giving us an existing distribution of Linux, but with a different distribution of non-system software (like a different desktop environment or configuration of it)
In many cases, turning an installation of the base distribution used to the one they’re shipping is a matter of installing certain packages and setting some configurations. Why should the user be required to reinstall their whole OS for this?
It would be way more practical if those distributions are available as packages, preferably managed by the package manager itself. This is much easier for both the user and the developer.
Some developers may find it less satisfying to do this, and I don’t mean to force my opinion on anyone, but only suggesting that there’s an easier way to do this. Distributions should be changing things that aren’t easily doable without a system reinstall.
I just call them “flavours” or theme distros
A “theme” with the ability to replace key packages with compromised versions!
I think it’s about controlling others. Not in an evil or conniving way, but rather that a lot of devs “don’t want other people forcing design decisions on them” when in reality they’re just replacing one set of design decisions with another.
Spoken like a true Arch Linux user
I don’t use arch
I say that very tongue-in-cheek, but it definitely gave a vibe haha
I also assumed you were a fellow Arch user.
I use Arch btw.
I don’t think they’d be so popular if they weren’t useful.
Why should the user be required to reinstall their whole OS? I don’t think they are: it seems relatively straightforward to change DEs on Ubuntu at least.
On the other hand, if someone knows they want Ubuntu with KDE, why should they have to go through a regular Ubuntu install just to do the post configuration themselves? Plus, maintainers of these offshoot distros can potentially more deeply remove dependency on the default DE.
I think focusing on differences in system software is less illustrative than looking at the out-of-the-box user experience and capabilities. A changed DE is a pretty huge practical difference.
This line of thought does really underscore how nebulous the definition of an operating system really is. Pour one out for GNU being totally subsumed culturally by a Kernel that everyone sees as an OS.
Name a single popular distro that follows op’s description that isn’t a novelty/fad.
Kubuntu
kubuntu is already literally just a package.
if you just install kubuntu-desktop (or something similar) from any buntu flavor you get it.
And that’s exactly my point. You get the same experience by just installing a package rather than having to “distro-hop”
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I think your focus is on ease for distributors rather than ease for users. Unless they had a series of checkboxes to choose your flavour, most won’t like it and it won’t gain traction.
It’s a bit like “why cannot people cook food in a restaurant to their liking rather than a chef doing all these meals and variations?”. People just wanna eat.
If you’re basing your distro on another distro, you’ll need to modify your dependencies to fit the existing packages anyway. It seems like the only difference is which repo the additional packages are being fetched from.
