Distributions 2007 review

This is the last LWN weekly for 2007, so it must be time to reflect on what's happened during the past year. Also this is a slow time of year, so there hasn't been much new news.

Debian GNU/Linux: Debian Etch (4.0) was released in April, as was the sixth revision of Sarge (3.1r6). The first Etch revision (4.0r1) was released in August. Debian development is focused on Lenny, now in the testing branch. Overall a good year, but it's unfortunate that the Dunc-Tank experiment of late 2006 - early 2007 seems to have caused the demise of the Debian Weekly News.

Fedora: Fedora made great strides in becoming true community distribution with the merger of Core and Extras. 2007 saw the release of both Fedora 7 and Fedora 8, both excellent desktops/workstations. Max Spevack led the project through the merger and announced his resignation at the end of the year. This week's DistroWatch had the comment that "despite all these positives, the distribution still fails to attract first-time Linux users who sometimes complain about the lack of a central configuration utility or the overly technical nature of the operating system." This led to a discussion on the Fedora Marketing list. There seems to be some agreement that Fedora does expect its users to be somewhat clueful, and that's the way we like it.

Gentoo Linux made one release this year. The year is not over so it's still possible for 2007.1 to make it in 2007. Gentoo saw quite a bit of developer churn this year, which may have led to a delayed release. Then again, releases aren't always that important. Gentoo works great for developers.

Mandriva Linux released in the spring and in the fall, or if you are down under it's the fall and the spring. The company is in recovery following the financial problems and lay-offs of previous years. Mandriva is friendly to new users, with a helpful community on mailing lists and forums to help you through any rough spots.

openSUSE released 10.3 this year. There's also an early alpha for 11.0 available. Like Fedora, openSUSE is a community project with an Enterprise sponsor. This has been a good year for the project. There has been quite a bit of new infrastructure like the Build Service, new mailing lists, style guidelines, and a new manager.

Slackware Linux: Slackware 12.0 was released in July. The Slackware current changelog remains active. There's not much else to say, Slackware continues. Slackware may not the most newbie friendly, but its very good at what it does. It's hard to imagine the Linux landscape without Slackware.

Ubuntu remains strong. Deals with Dell haven't hurt. Ubuntu, and its derivatives Edubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu continue to gain users. Releases for this year include Feisty Fawn (7.04) and Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), as well as the first alpha for the Hardy Heron (8.04). To see Ubuntu's popularity, just look at all the other distributions that are using it for a base. (MEPIS, Geubuntu, gOS, Linux Mint, Symphony OS, Fluxbuntu, gNewSense, Arabian Linux, Kiwi, Impi, Guadalinex, MoLinux, nUbuntu, ProTech, Linux for Clinics, Mythbuntu, Pyramid, UbuntuCE, UbuntuME, Ubuntu Studio, ubuntutrinux, BeaFanatIX, PUD, and andLinux). These can be found by searching for Ubuntu in the Distribution List.

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> Shouldn't the article say, "It's hard to image the Linux landscape without > Slackware"?

That is what I meant.

er, isn't that "imagine" the landscape?

Don't forget to include Nexenta among Ubuntu derivatives.

Nexenta is a project to compile Ubuntu on open-sourced Solaris.

I'm surprised not to see more mention of Ubuntu's increased adoption during 2007 - it's hard
to dig up statistics but it certainly seems to have more 'mindshare' than any other distro
among new Linux users.  The fact that two colleagues of mine, who are in IT but have never
used Linux, installed Ubuntu and liked it a lot is just one indicator.

Of course, other distros are technically not that different to Ubuntu, but if one distro
breaks through to the mass market (while still promoting open source drivers and walking the
fine line between open source drivers and good WiFi / graphics support), every Linux user and
distro will benefit.  And Ubuntu positively encourages derivative distros, helping increase
consistency within the population of Linux distros so it's easier to switch.