Which Desktop Distro Will Die First?

Over at NewsForge, Roblimo asks the musical question of which of the several recently released "desktop oriented" Linux distributions won't survive the coming year. It's nice to see user-centric distributions at all, but it really is a niche market for now. Apropos that, psykocrime writes "The fine folks at UnitedLinux have issued a Press Release announcing UnitedLinux 1.0. Should be interesting to see whether this sinks or swims, considering the general ambivalence (at best) or even outright hostility (at worst) that most of the talk about United Linux has met, from the Linux community. Questions about GPL compliance, per-set licensing terms, etc... is this the future or Linux or just another albatross?" And J. J. Ramsey writes "BeyondUnreal reviews not only Xandros Desktop's installation, but also shows what this distro's $99 price tag actually gets you. Read more here. LinuxPlanet also has an in-depth review of its own."

Comments

It's like porn sites.... there are enough already

[krog]

...so making a new one is a losing proposition. Of course making a new linux distro technically costs nothing, but paying for duplication, hosting, legal fees, etc can make it a financial nightmare if the users don't show up.

For a pretty Linux desktop experience there's Debian; for the more seasoned Linux hackers there is Mandrake and SuSE; for the Linux newbies there's Slackware and Gentoo. Throw in a handful of system-on-a-disk and other special purpose Linuxes, and you've got a pretty full plate. Don't know if there's room for many more pretenders...

I predict that Debian will die first

[Anonymous Coward]

It has far too many license issues :)
The package quality is too high :)
It seems to have files in sane locations :)
You can upgrade to the latest version far too easily
It supports far too many archs :)
The swirl logo has lost its hypnotic appeal...

Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea

[handsomepete]

"For a pretty Linux desktop experience there's Debian; for the more seasoned Linux hackers there is Mandrake and SuSE; for the Linux newbies there's Slackware and Gentoo"

I can't wait to see how this one turns out... if saying that Slack and Gentoo are for newbies doesn't pull people out of the woodwork, nothing will.

Re:Easy answer

[Anonymous Coward]

If Lindows is successful, look for other innovative Linux distros like "Smindows" and "Blindows".

Re:What kills Linux distros

[Anonymous Coward]

5. Profit?!?!?

Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea

[oneeyedman]

For a pretty Linux desktop experience there's Debian; for the more seasoned Linux hackers there is Mandrake and SuSE; for the Linux newbies there's Slackware and Gentoo.

You are joking, right? Pretty Debian? Mandrake for seasoned hackers? Gentoo for newbies?

No more of this or someone may get hurt.

Re:What kills Linux distros

[mla_anderson]

they're going to get shunned faster than a sweet potato that's been up Rush Limbaugh's butt for safekeeping during the winter.

Ok, that just ruined my day.

Re:Dumb...

[n2dasun]

>I'd say if you compare it to WinMe it kicks the living crap out of it.

I could kick the crap out of WinME blindfolded, drunk and barefoot with a broken toe. I'd switch OS's if I wasn't in the middle of some video capture and other projects. I cant stand WinME.

Soapbox Ejected.

Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea

[NeuroChrist]

can't believe you guys are missing this: Lesbian Gnu/Linux

Re:Easy answer

[Anonymous Coward]

If any of those distributions are successful, then we might start seeing Linix, Jinux, and Minix... oh wait.

Of course Slackware's development has slowed.

[Glytch]

How can one improve on perfection?

(Many thanks, Patrick.)

i will keep track

[circletimessquare]

this is a very, very good question, which distro will die first. a really good question.

in the interest of answering the question, i will keep track of the various distros under deathwatch on my amiga work station.

i will enter their information on my OS/2 database.

everyone can view the results, as they are tabulated, on my minix server.

again, this is a good question and a very important one! we shall watch the distros die! and i will give the winner, the one who predicts the order of death, a genuine TRS-80 Color Computer!

(note the details for the '12th Annual "Last" Chicago COCO Fest May 17-18th, 2003' on the link... wtf?! a TRS-80 Color Computer fest in 2003?! WOW! i started this post as a flippant jaded joke and i find myself in dumbfounded amazement ;-P )

Re:Have you used it?

[Waffle Iron]

It failed at everything. It was tough to use, the menus were cluttered with software you didn't have but you could pay for. It was slow, it couldn't run windows programs the way it advertised.

That description brings back memories of Win95.

Hmmm, If history repeats itself, Lindows could be a runaway success!

Re:Probably Most of Them..

[PerryMason]

"Ah shit I am in Linux, now I need to reboot to windows before I can do this"

I have those moments all the time. I'll be sitting at home thinking, geez, I havent had a W32.worm rape my system in months, I'd better boot into Windows.

Yggdrasil

[nickos]

My money's on Yggdrasil. Oh, hang on...

UnitedLinux an Albatross?

[einhverfr]

Hmmm..... Am I the only one that is amused that an albatross can fly while a penguin can't?

I actually have very little faith in United Linux, mostly because I don't approve of Caldera's business practices (their main source of revenue has seemed to be lawsuits).

Re:OK, so what editor should we kill?

[MrHanky]

The only sane thing is a merger. I predict that in 2003 we will se a merger of most of the great editors, as with the distributions. It's name will be Elvim Sexmacs, incorporating the great noobfriendlyness of vim and Elvis, the intuitive interface of sed, yet more friendlyness from ex, all within the smart, light packaging of emacs. It's going to be OSS's notepad-killer, with the most marketing-friendly name since Ogg Vorbis.