Cloned Distros: Why Ubuntu Sucks and Should be Banned
To write it down clearly: I don't like clones. There are too many distro's out there as it is. Over the last years I have had many people ask me: I have tried Distro X, Y and Z, can you help me? Just a while back a colleague told me, I have upgraded Ubuntu and now my server won't work, can you help me? Or constantly I get people telling me: "I have tried Clone of Clone X, Y, Z, it looks nice, but then I upgraded and it hosed my system."
In general problems can occur in any software, but more in those who are far from mainline and have been hacked around on code that has been maintained and crafted by original distributions. This is true with a clone, even more so with clones of clones or clones of clones of clones. The more removed from mainline or the original developer the bigger the maintenance issues.
REASON 1: 0 INNOVATION
Cloning one distro and giving it a few different packages and name and logo and call it a new distro with a new installer is not innovation and does not help the community overall. To call it a new distro is just plain and simply confusing to normal people out there. Greg KH, the kernel developer says it better than I could ever do, Ubuntu overall has contributed 100 kernel patches from 2004-2008, which is 25 per year!!!! Where is your innovation Mr. Shuttleworth?
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I'm not going to bother signing up to post there, so...
Look, you can't tell me that clones are bad, and I'm a little bit unnerved in him calling offshoot distros, or "spins" clones. You can't tell me that it's not a good thing that a distro like PCLinuxOS bases itself off a very fine distro like Mandriva, but changes the very things users have been crying about for years (package management, stability, company's lack of listening skills with their community...) and improve upon them, while moving to a rolling release model to boot. I call that innovation. I call that building a better mousetrap.
Why drive a Ford Mustang when you can drive a Saleen or Roush Mustang for the same price?