An LWN.net Distribution List update

It's that time of year again -- the time when we look at how the LWN Distributions List has changed over the past year. Last year's update can be found here. At that time the list had 485 "active" distributions, with an additional 58 listings in the Historical section. This year the list has grown to 491 active distributions, but down to 56 in the Historical listing.

We define a historical distribution as one that is no longer under development, but we leave them on the list as long as there is still code to be found. As always, it can be a challenge separating the slow-paced distributions from the historical ones. There are, inevitably, some projects that are still in the active part of the list that have not been developed in years. Occasionally historical projects come out with new releases. Distributions will be removed from the list if their website times out repeatedly over a period of time, but that's not the end of it. Entries are moved to an internal list, where they are rechecked a few more times. Sometimes projects come back and are re-added to the list.

In the last year every link on the list has been checked at least once. Almost half the list has been checked again. In addition to regular link checking, new distributions are added and existing entries are updated with new releases and other information. We do our best to keep the list up-to-date. That said, if you know of distributions that should be added, or removed, or changed in any way, just let us know.

Now it's time to say goodbye to the distributions that have been removed in the last year, in no particular order. Brutalware, Progeny Componentized Linux, herbix, BeatrIX Linux, Deep-Water/Linux, distccKNOPPIX, LinuxDefender Live!, LNX-BBC, Mandows, Mediainlinux, RunOnCD, RxLinux, LinuxInstall.org, Turkix, XoL, Aleph ARMlinux, UltraLinux, epiOS, APAWS Linux with Gallery, Linux for Windows 9X, Phat Linux, GNU/Linux TerminalServer for Schools, BSLinux, CAEN Linux, FlightLinux, Laonux, LibraNet GNU/Linux, Linux in a Pillbox (LIAP), Mastodon, Phlak, PHP Solutions Live, Sentinix, slimlinux, Snootix, Tunix, uOS, Icepack Linux and Think BlueLinux.

---

(Log in to post comments)

Thats quite a few distros gone, I wonder if the people who started them or contributed them
are/have contributing their changes to the distros they derived from
(Debian/Fedora/Gentoo/etc). Might be nice to hear from the ones that were removed if LWN can
track down people who were involved in them.

I was peripherally involved with the development of the LNX-BBC (and the Linuxcare BBC which
was the brainchild of Duncan MacKinnon when he and I worked there).

So far as I know all of the core parties have been off doing their own things, pursuing their
various careers, being involved with family life, etc.

There is no shortage of compact ditributions which will fit into the "bootable business card"
format.  There are even BBC media in DVD densities which I think will fit a normal 650MB ISO
image in biz card format
(or pretty close to it).  I know that the mini-DVD blanks store 1.4GB. That means that a
normal Ubuntu disc can fit in small form factor on most reasonably recent equipment.

Additionally BIOS support for booting from USB thumb drives has improved considerably ... and
the capacity of those has gone through the roof (I have a relatively cheap 8GB thumb drive
that I use most).

So I can understand why the team have gone off and just let this one languish as a relic of
the past.

JimD