Linux Distribution Timeline

perishthethought@lemm.ee to Linux@lemmy.ml – 112 points –
upload.wikimedia.org

A really neat graphic I randomly stumbled across on Wikipedia.

No idea if this is accurate but it's fascinating to see all these distros laid out this way.

Seems to live here now: https://github.com/FabioLolix/LinuxTimeline/tree/main

Where do you live in this family tree?

33

When I was first hearing about linux, it was via Knoppix. Seems like a past life now, so long ago.

The real hero here is the 75 line shell script, generating the very cool SVG image from a CSV file.

I installed Slackware in 1994 or so. Floppy. Disks.

Fast forward almost 30 years and I'm still trying new (to me) distros. Proxmox VE this time.

Proxmox isn't a "distro" as most would colloquially think of one. It's a hypervisor.

Am I taking crazy pills?

Do you mean you are using it to use your setup in a VM or container?

Proxmox VE is a packaging of Linux as an operating system. It is a distribution. Straight from the wikipedia page:

It is a Debian-based Linux distribution with a modified Ubuntu LTS kernel[7] and allows deployment and management of virtual machines and containers.[8][9]

Cool way to respond to a comment btw:

Am I taking crazy pills?

The VMs I'm running in Proxmox are also Linux, but that's less interesting to me.

I gotcha. I meant no offense. I was halfway hoping you'd tell me there was a spin of proxmox that was meant for desktop use that containerized everything or something.

It's Debian-based so can install all the same desktop and window environments available there.

failed to install Debian Woody and SUSE in early naughts – finally succeeded with a Stage 1 Gentoo install (yay for me?) – a long sabbatical from Linux, back into the groove with Pop!_OS for a while, and recently replaced with Debian stable (successfully this time ;p ) – getting old enough that “bleeding edge” doesn’t hold any appeal any more, “boring” is far more interesting

Debian stable with some stuff installed in containers and some as flatpak is a sleeper. It may just be the best most Rick solid combination out there.

I cut my teeth on Mandrake 7.0.

There are many names on that list that I have tried over the years, but use Debian and openSUSE normally

My first flavour was Red Hat back in the late 90s. It's a shame I didn't give it more of a go back then. Then Mint for a couple of years in the earlyish 2010s before finally settling on Arch where I've been for almost a decade now.

Yggdrasil, Mandrake, Slackware (on floppy!) that takes me back...

Pssht they don't even have AmogOS

A parody OS inspired by Among Us ඞ

Oh, I see. Yes, serious omission

I can't believe they'd miss such a cornerstone of Linux history

Started on Ubuntu in 09. - got the CD in the mail On kubuntu now

Ive bounced around all over arch, Manjaro, fedora, pop_os, mint but I always come back to kubuntu.

It just works for me.

I started with Slackware around 1997 because I needed a free C compiler plus all I had were junk, hand-me-down computers. Stopped programming & using linux around 2000 and had switched back to Windows on a newly built, decent computer. From about 2000 until about 2016 I rarely used linux besides a couple routers. Raspberry pi 3 came out with built-in wifi & my dislike of Windows 10 got me back into linux for more use cases. Valve's work on proton finally made it so I could switch to linux for most gaming & my Windows usage dropped to almost nothing. Currently using Manjaro on primary desktop and Fedora 38 on tablet with mix of distros in LXC & VMs on mini-PC w/ Proxmox VE & Synology NAS. SteamVR on linux been getting decent amount of work on it lately so once it gets stable I'll have one less reason to need Windows.

I just noticed Christian Edition and Muslim edition, and was puzzled...this is the best article I could find on them. I think its interesting that religious distros keep showing up, rather than just religious packages being available on package managers.