 I've always thought that one of the biggest strengths of Linux was the fact that there's so much choice, the fact that there are so many Linux distributions out there to choose from. I think that's a positive thing because that means that there's a very high chance that you can find the perfect Linux distribution suited toward your needs. But by that same token, a lot of people feel that one of the biggest weaknesses of Linux is the fact that there's too much choice, that there's too many Linux distributions out there. So go to distrowwatch.com and there's more than 300 Linux distributions on distrowwatch. How can you possibly choose a distribution when there's so many to choose from? It's choice paralysis, right? You're paralyzed by this overabundance of Linux distributions. And I understand the critique. I really do. I think I envision a world very soon where we have a lot fewer Linux distributions because I think the reason we have so many Linux distributions right now, I think some of the reasons these people create Linux distributions, some of their reasons are going to disappear in the near future. I think we're going to have a much smaller choice going forward because I see some changes happening in the Linux ecosystem and I think these changes will be a positive. I think right now the reason so many Linux distributions exist is because people feel the need that they have to create these Linux distributions because they're feeling a void, essentially. For example, one of the most common reasons people create Linux distributions is because there's a parent distribution that they base off of, but that parent distribution is not user-friendly. It either is very hard to install. It has a command line installer. It's very minimal out of the box, yada, yada, yada, and then they try to take that parent distribution and make it much more user-friendly. Sometimes they want to make it new user-friendly. That's a very common reason why people make various Linux distributions out there. Another very common reason is people want to put their own spin. They want to put their own custom skin, themes, icons, wallpapers. They just want to theme a Linux distribution, an existing Linux distribution, a little differently than the parent distribution. I think that's probably the second most common reason that people create their own Linux distribution. The first reason I talked about which was making a non-user-friendly distribution user-friendly, I think that's going to become less and less of an issue going forward because Linux package management is really changing. You're seeing a lot more of these reproducible built systems becoming standard. This really started, what, like 15 years ago with NixOS and then with GNU Geeks, but they were really niche Linux distributions. They were not distributions most people had ever heard of until really just in probably the last four or five years, they've kind of exploded a little bit in popularity. A lot of the popularity has to do with the fact that now you have mainstream distributions like Fedora with Fedora Silver Blue also doing similar things with these reproducible builds. For those of you that are not familiar with what I'm talking about about this reproducibility that these distributions have is essentially they have a config file that you once you set up this config file and or if their installer creates a config file for you automatically you can save that config file put it on your GitHub or your GitLab or USB stick carry it around with you anytime you need to reinstall or just install a new machine somewhere you have that config file and it sets that computer up with that operating system exactly the way it was before the same programs the same users the same permissions the same startup services same window manager and login manager and everything it's all ready for you as soon as you run through the installation and that's kind of a game changer when you think about it because when you have such an easy way to reinstall your system with your settings and everything configured out of the box you know a lot of people when they first start creating a Linux distribution really they're creating the distribution mainly just for themselves now sometimes it turns into a bigger project because other people want to use this person's distribution but for the most part that's probably the most common reason I hear people wanting to make a distribution is they were wanting to make a distribution mainly for just them and now there's no reason to do that right with these reproducible builds that and you're going to see many more Linux distributions starting to go that route you're already seeing that a little bit with arch Linux for those of you that haven't tried out the new arch install script now you no longer have to go through the traditional command line installation now there is a little bit of it's not really in curses install but they have this script you type arch install all one word when you download the ISO type arch install and it's a guided menu system kind of installation is still not graphical you do this at the command line and a TTY but it guides you through it right you don't have to read the wiki you really don't have to know anything at all you make a few choices through a menu system and arch installs itself but here's the thing with the new arch install script it also writes a config file I think it writes it in Python if I'm not mistaken I know the arch installer is actually written in Python but I think it saves the config file it generates a config file for you so you could save that config file and then the next time you run arch install on an arch machine you could actually use that config file if you had it loaded to a USB stick or had it on a github or a git lab or something like that that way you don't even have to go through the arch install menu system anymore you just plug in that config file and away you go and now that we've got more mainstream distributions doing this sort of thing before it was just nicks and geeks but now when you have distributions like fedora and arch doing this now the world has to take notice you're gonna see pretty much every Linux distribution I think adopt this kind of reproducibility I also think this is really going to help with the distributions that are hard to install right in quotes you know anything that has a command line installation or it doesn't install a graphical environment out of the box with things like arch and gen two and things like that with these reproducible builds using these configs no longer is that going to be an issue because now you just plug in the config file and away you go and if I was going to put on my conspiracy theorist hat I would actually say that the new arch install script with that config file you know the menu based arch install script that now generates that config file I think that actually may serve a purpose for the arch guys I think that's actually going to start eliminating a lot of the arch Linux based derivatives out there because no longer do many of these distributions really need to exist or at least they don't need to exist as a distribution I think a lot of these arch based Linux distributions they could maintain their own repositories of software they have their repose with their custom programs and their custom config files and the things that make their distribution their distribution but they really don't need to fool with the ISO anymore they don't need to fool with the calamaries install or anything like that if you have this config file that just automatically generates Joe Bob's distribution that saves so much work there's so much work now that has to be done to create a Linux distribution that these reproducible configs eliminate so much work I really think that's the way to go and I think you're going to start seeing more distributions going this route I've already noticed Eric Dubois who is the maintainer of Arco Linux if you follow some of his videos over on his channel you will notice that Eric and Arco Linux they seem to be transitioning a little bit they're more focused on actually just maintaining repositories of software with some of their custom programs like the arch Linux tweak tool which is this new program there used to be a Arco Linux tweak tool but now they're making more generic arch tools and then they changed from Arco tweak tool to arch tweak tool because now they want this tool to work on arch Linux mainline arch and pretty much any arch based Linux distribution and you can turn on and off different repositories of software like the Arco repositories if you want them or the Gerudo repositories or the Endeavor repositories that's a really neat idea and I think that's the future I think Eric Dubois I think he kind of gets it and I think once it's one of those things once one person does it once one big distribution kind of changes their model where hey you know we're not going to build ISOs anymore right we're going to go a different route I think you're going to see more distributions do that to where getting your favorite Linux distribution installed is just adding a repository and of course I would say 95% of all Linux distributions out there are either based on Debian or they're based on Arch so once those two distributions start pushing this reproducibility and they kind of eliminate the need for so many distributions spinoffs you know we don't need a million Debian spinoffs we don't need a million arch spinoffs because all you're essentially doing is you're putting in all of this unnecessary work when a simple config file gets plugged in and can generate everything for you or for your users so that's the future that I am seeing I already see it kind of hitting that way I think we're still a few more years before this becomes commonplace but I think we're going to get there and I'm pretty excited about this now before I go I want to thank a few special people I want to thank the producers of the show Dustin Gabe James Matt Maxim Michael Mitchell Paul West Wanya Ball and Homie Allen Armoredreck and Chuck Menderangry DiYokai Dylan Marsh from Erion Alexander piece of Arch and for door polytech realities for less red profit Steven tools Devler and Willie these guys they're my high steered patrons over on Patreon without these guys this quick rant video would not have been possible the show is also brought to you by each and every one of these fine ladies and gentlemen all these names you're seeing on the screen these are all my supporters over on Patreon because I don't have any corporate sponsors I depend on you guys if you like my work want to see more videos about Linux free and open source software subscribe to distro tube over on Patreon alright guys peace imagine using a config file to turn a boom to Linux yet