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A Mind Map of Linux Distributions 67

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the pics-for-your-cube dept.
Howard writes "All about Linux has posted a Mind Map of GNU/Linux distributions. This map of GNU/Linux hopes to throw light on the current GNU/Linux distributions and their relationships with each other. Though the map doesn't show the historically significant but now redundant distros like SLS, Yggdrasil and the erstwhile Red Hat, it shows many of the more prominent GNU/Linux distributions."
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A Mind Map of Linux Distributions More

A Mind Map of Linux Distributions

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  • Nice diagram! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Whiney Mac Fanboy ( 963289 ) * <whineymacfanboy@gmail.com> on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @05:58AM (#15195345) Homepage Journal
    Great diagram - it does a pretty nice job of showing distro lineage - it is very hard to show linux distributions in a hierarchical chart like this as the relationships between distributions is not necessarily hierarchical.

    For instance, the multi-lingual section does not show the parent distributions (with the exception of Vine linux) red flag (IIRC) was based on a version of red hat (as was mandriva).

    Still, that's just being picky - its a useful diagram, that shows many of the important relationships between distros.

  • Useful (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Oldsmobile ( 930596 )
    This actually very useful. My previous experimentations with Linux usually had the problem of what distro to use. Since so many were out there, and it was impossible to take in all the basic on all of them, I was totally swamped and ended up installing Suse, which was ok, but not suitable to my needs.

    Maybe I should try again. However, I am not so enthusiastic about spending days upon end recompiling kernels trying to get it to work properly on my laptop :(

    • Re:Useful (Score:3, Insightful)

      by hcdejong ( 561314 )
      ...ended up installing Suse, which was ok, but not suitable to my needs.

      And how would this map be useful in deciding which are? It only tells you which Linux distros exist, and how they relate. Apart from a few notes on special-purpose/language versions, it tells you nothing about the functionality and philosophy of a distribution.
      • No, but it tells me what is out there, what distros are based on what and the special purpose info is very useful.

        This is like the difference between sitting in a random pile of books or having a library index to look through. The index won't tell me what is in the books, but it tells me what choice I have and categorises them to some extent.

        • Distrowatch [distrowatch.com] offers information on and reviews for many different Linux distributions. It does not really classify them, though. The distro chart [linux.org] at Linux.org [linux.org] classified distributions using several categories, but it has not been updated in a while. Also, there is a test [zegeniestudios.net] to determine which Linux distribution is right for you.
    • How can something be "ok, but not suitable?"

  • Linspire and Debian (Score:3, Informative)

    by MichaelSmith ( 789609 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @06:50AM (#15195449) Homepage Journal

    Somebody else said that Linspire is derived from Debian [slashdot.org], but the diagram does not show this.

    Who is right about this? I can't really see the linspire people rolling their own, somehow.

  • a map for your mind. It helps you see the historical/genealogical relationships between distros, but doesn't map the minds of the users/developers of those distros.

    I was expecting something more along the lines of the philosophical leanings of the mapped distros, like which are more community-based and which are more corporate; which are incredibly zealous and which are more diplomatic. You could pick up to three different spectra and map them before you ran out of easy-to-visualize dimensions.

    For examp

  • Small corrections needed (Score:3, Informative)

    by OlivierB ( 709839 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @07:12AM (#15195514)
    Linspire is Debian based.
    And ClarkConnect (not represented here)should be under RedHat Entreprise Linux.

  • Those who ignore history are doomed to .... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Yonder Way ( 603108 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @07:18AM (#15195532)
    ....irrelevance?

    Unfortunately by leaving out the historical lineage, it doesn't really show how Fedora, SuSE, and Mandriva are all descended from Red Hat Linux. Others are grouped together by things like size or security rather than lineage. It's not very logical or consistent in its current layout. And by ignoring lineage, it has sacraficed its relevance.
    • I'd say they're grouped by the stuff that matters most, not by historical relationships that may not have any relevance anymore. Personally I find it more useful than a pure genealogy chart would be.
    • it doesn't really show how Fedora, SuSE, and Mandriva are all descended from Red Hat Linux

      Perhaps SuSE is on it's own conceptual branch becuase SuSE is not descended from RedHat?

      There are other, real irrgularities in the chart. Why are some branches named for their theme while others are not? Becuase 'is based on' is the default relationship. Debian, gentoo and RedHat branches contain a lot of 'is based on' relationships. (Really this is nitpicking about the schema for internal labeling, if you can grok t
    • You're right about it being logical. But then, that is the point of mind maps. The brain works associatively, not reasonably. For some people this is a good layout, for some bad - it depends on their brains wiring. For that reason it is relevant, but obviously not to you.
    • (it)*

      (note, that's a regexp)

  • SELinux isn't even a distribution (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Netsnipe ( 112692 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <epinsten>> on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @07:32AM (#15195559) Homepage
    It's really a series of kernel patches that implement mandatory access control.
  • Just goes to show how critical Debian is to the whole shebang. I do so love to see people who whine about Debians defects complete and utter failure to realise that without all the "defective" work that the Debian team do they would have to use freakin RedHat!!
    • The core work of Debian is great. But the two complaints I always hear about it are that (i) it's so slow to take on new updates, and (ii) their license purism is at the expense of including useful (or just cool) stuff.

      Which is why it's such a great thing to base other variants off - lots of people have problems with Debian, but they're things that you can easily fix by bolting stuff on top.
    • You are wrong. In Gentoo community, Debian is completely irrelevant, not critical, as well as Red Hat is. Both technical superiority and community management makes Gentoo outstanding both for bleeding edge development AND hardened production. For example, does NSA use Debian? No, they are backing and contributing Gentoo with selinux. In mission critical systems, marketing propaganda (as in Red Hat or Microsoft) does not count.

      • You are wrong. In Gentoo community, Debian is completely irrelevant, not critical, as well as Red Hat is.

        Except for all the software development memebers of both communities do. I seriously suggest you check into the amount of kernel contributions that come from people with @redhat.com e-mail addresses before you spew off nonsense about Redhat being "irellevent."

        For example, does NSA use Debian? No, they are backing and contributing Gentoo with selinux.

        Funny then that the NSA's contributors list [nsa.gov] for SELinux

        • Funny then that the NSA's contributors list [nsa.gov] for SELinux includes as many/more references to Red Hat and Debian as Gentoo.

          That's not funny at all. You forgot to mention these are EXTERNAL contributors to SELinux, while Gentoo/SELinux is used internally by NSA, as well as supported by NSA for other gov agencies.
          • You keep saying that, how about some references to back it up? A good 15-20 minutes Googling on the subject didn't turn up and kind of preference for Gentoo from the NSA that I've seen. I'd imagine if such a preference were well-known, it'd be a bit easier to come by.

            As it stands all I can find are references to Gentoo, Fedora/RH, and Debian all contributing to the project and compatible with the software.
      • Should I feed it?

        If I feed it, it'll probably stick around.

        If it sticks around, it'll probably say something equally ludicrous and amusing.

        Aw hell, sure.

        Gentoo? W(hy)TF would I ever use Gentoo? I've got better things to do with my time, like actually *use* my applications, instead of waiting a whole weekend while the latest ebuilds from KDE and X.org compile on my whitebox Athlon linux desktop. Emerge can go crawl in a corner and die as far as I care. I've *done* the whole compile-from-source song and d

        • I've got better things to do with my time, like actually *use* my applications, instead of waiting a whole weekend while the latest ebuilds from KDE and X.org compile on my whitebox Athlon linux desktop.

          What a nonsense you say, with a lot of prejudice. With PORTAGE_NICENESS 15, last time I did compiling KDE on background, I played a 3D game at the same time. And won. What actually prevents you to just restart X or KDE session after Xorg or KDE has been finished recompiled?

  • Yggdrasil was great. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by torpor ( 458 )

    One of the first easy-to-use and easy-to-demo Linux distro's around, I got a whole data center moved to 486/Pentium hardware on the strength of the "rootfs on CD" bootsys that Yggdrasil was shipping, before RedHat was anything more than an SLS-wannabe, and I have to say that I really can't fathom why it wasn't considered significant enough to include on this map ..
    • As you say, it "was" great. The picture of the mindmap itself contains some text, which explains why it isn't there:

      "This mind map does not go into the historical perspective of Linux but tries to showcase the relationships between current linux distributions".

      Although there might be critizism to this mind map, I still find it pretty useful, because I really lost track of what which distributions are based on.

  • Are all Linux distros based on the GNU userspace? Are there any based on, for example, the BSD userspace instead?
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • But then you'd really be running BSD, wouldn't you? :)
       
      Just kidding. I know people have talked about it and done it, but I don't think there's any actual "BSD/Linux" distro.
    • Are there any based on, for example, the BSD userspace instead?

      As far as I know, none do so very comprehensively. But Slackware has a number of BSD-isms thrown into it, which happens to suit me quite well.

    • Are all Linux distros based on the GNU userspace? Are there any based on, for example, the BSD userspace instead?


      A lot of the embedded Linux devices don't have the GNU userspace. Think of something like a Tivo, or fancy Photocopier. These sorts of things may have no use for deploying with the usual userspace command line tools, just the kernel, needed libraries, and the end-user interface (web server software/GUI/whatever)

  • Mind Mapping Software (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jallen02 ( 124384 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @08:34AM (#15195777) Homepage Journal
    That Mind Map appears to have been made with FreeMind. An excellent, open source, mind mapping solution. I advise folks to try it out.

    FreeMind [sourceforge.net]

    Jeremy
  • I think it has a pretty good support for many European languages.
  • Mepis is related to Ubuntu? I'm not sure I have ever heard of such a connection....

    I would be thrilled if someone could explain to me how that works.

  • Missing distro! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Why doesn't it show that everything comes from SCO and GNU/Linux is a result of the merger between SCO and XFree86?

    *duck*
  • I see that the map is nice, but perhaps there should actually be two maps. One showing which distros are derived from which(in completeness, instead of putting DSL under compact distros, put it under Debian), but also another showing the intended purpose(and use the little dot to show derivation).
  • I have recently finished a 3 month analysis of mindmap software. Everything from Visio, to Freemind.

    My conclusion is that the best mindmap software on the market is not software but a large piece of paper and colored pens. The mind-mapping experience does not translate easily to mouse-clicks and keystrokes.

    That said, the SECOND best is Mindmanager 6 Pro. It is pricey but worth it.

    Freemind is nice and hopefully will mature into a better product
    • We have people creating mind maps with large paper and markers, but they then sometimes want to recreate them electronically for emailing or handouts. These are not technical users, and they're from small nonprofits (read: poor). Based on your experience with mind mapping software, do you have a recommendation for something we could suggest they use?
  • If you are going with lineage as your classification attribute at a given level, you should stick with lineage. At the top level, he mixed lineage (i.e., SuSE, RedHat, Debian) with purpose (i.e., minialist system, security oriented, etc.). This leads to hideousness like the tags on the minimalist systems like "derived from...". So it might be a good representation of how he understands the space (i.e., it might be a good map of his mind), but for any real use, you'll still need a proper taxonomy. And th

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