 Are there too many Linux distributions? That's the question that I wanna ask today. The whole argument behind this has been going on for literally as long as there's been Linux. I mean, literally since the beginning, people have been talking about fragmentation, they've been talking about duplication of effort, they've been talking about how distributions are frivolous and usually don't provide any real value when it comes to the derivatives and stuff like that. So that there has been a argument about the number of Linux distributions out there for a very, very long time. So what I wanted to do today was kind of answer the question, are there too many Linux distributions? Before I jump in, if you could drop a like on the like button down there, I'd really appreciate it. It really does help the channel. So what I've decided to do was kind of argue this from both positions and then kind of give my opinion towards the end. So for those people who consider there to be too many Linux distributions, there are many different arguments that kind of go along to as the reason why they think that way. So the first one, and this is the big one, right? The big reason why people think that there's too many Linux distributions is that it causes fragmentation, right? And that fragmentation is bad because it means that there's just too much choice out there, developers are splitting their attention between these little distributions and not working together. And it kind of causes duplication of effort and therefore a lot of these things are a waste of time and most of them are pointless and all this stuff, right? Fragmentation is the big kind of umbrella argument that a lot of people use when they talk about there being too many Linux distributions. And obviously there are a lot of Linux distributions out there that have been abandoned over time. So this kind of creates a bunch of digital detritus out there on the internet. So let's just say you've learned as new users that there are Linux distributions beyond Ubuntu and you're trying to search for the best Linux distributions out there. And you're gonna come across approximately 10,000 blog post articles out there giving you a list of the best Linux distributions. Approximately half of them are going to list distributions that no longer exist. Now obviously some of the distributions on those lists will still be around Linux, Ubuntu, Arch, you know, those things but a lot of the distributions have come and gone over the years and that kind of leaves just a whole bunch of information out there on distributions that just do no longer exist. And that can cause quite a bit of confusion for new users. And it also just makes things kind of messy, right? Even if you've used Linux for a very long time and you're looking for a new Linux distribution you might go find yourself a distribution that looks really, really nice. Maybe they've done a lot of effort into making it look nice or has some really cool tools. And then you go kind of searching into that and you realize that it's no longer being developed and that can cause some disappointment and you know whatever. So abandoned distros do kind of leave behind what I call digital detritus. So that's another argument that people use. Another big one is that smaller, rarer distributions tend to have smaller communities and smaller communities means that support is not as easy to obtain when you use those distributions. So it's argued that support for new users would be better if everyone used just a few main distributions because it would allow support for those new users to be much easier. It'd be more consolidated, there'd be more people and more people means better and more available support. Similarly, smaller, more rarer distros tend to have less documentation. So even beyond just the people aspect of support there's usually less documentation to be had when it comes to smaller distributions. And whether you like to admit it or not most of the distributions that make up the Linux ecosystem are small, quote unquote rare distributions. They're derivatives of other things. Maybe you'll come across the rare independent distribution but even then usually because it's such a small project the documentation is usually lacking. Not always but usually. And the last one that I had here on the list is a little bit more of my argument but we'll talk about that later is that too many distributions kind of leads to lack of originality. So the big example I have of this one is that if you've seen one arch based distribution you've kind of seen them all. It's kind of the same for Ubuntu based distributions. It's the same for Slackware distributions I'm sure. Really if you've seen one derivative distribution of the main distribution you've seen them all usually there's not much there to make them stand out for any good reason. So you have your exceptions to this rule and usually it's because those distributions stand out for bad reason. So I'm looking like Miley Cyrus Linux or whatever it is or Rebecca Black Linux whatever those are derivatives of something else. They stand out for a weird reason or an odd reason or a bad reason depending on how you look at it. So usually the derivative distributions don't stand out from the distribution that they've derived from. And that usually to me means it's kind of a waste of time. If you haven't put in the effort to make your distribution kind of stand out to have original tools and original installer something that makes it different than what you're coming from really then what's the point. And that's a big argument for there being just too many distributions because you can see that as you have more and more distributions they kind of blend together and look the same even if they do have different skins on them. So really too many distributions leads to lack of originality. Okay so those are the arguments for there being too many distributions. Let me talk about the other side of the argument for just a minute. So the first one is that the nature of open source means that developers get to choose what they work on. Nobody's paying these people for the most part or if they are they're probably working for a more established distro. But for the most part the more independent developers choose what they want to work on. They split off from Ubuntu to go make Linux Mint. They split off from Ubuntu to make elementary OS. They split off from Arts to make Manjaro. And the reason why they've split off from these major projects is because they have a different vision for the project. They have different ways of they want to do things. You know they want to make it a more stable version of Arch or they want to not use snaps or whatever. You know they have different things that they want to do that doesn't fit in with the main project's goals. So allowing developers to have this choice allows more options for users and usually choice is a good thing. So we'll move on right to that one is that choice is important. So imagine going into the grocery store and there being only one flavor, one brand of cereal, right? Now everybody knows that this isn't true. You walk down the cereal aisle there are dozens upon dozens of cereal choices and that's good because not everybody likes corn flakes, right? If only corn flakes existed, a lot of people wouldn't like cereal. They would just stop buying it. They'd find some other breakfast food. You know, the same thing with salad dressing or you know, whatever you name it. Usually you go into a grocery store you have multitudes of options because it allows people who have different tastes in things to be able to find things that they like. Linux distributions are the same thing. Basically is what I'm saying is Linux distributions are cereal. Weird, it's a weird metaphor I admit. But the idea is that the more distributions are out there the more choice people have. And that choice allows them to find a distribution that works for them. And when we're talking about distributions we're talking about the package management system the package availability allows them to find a repository that has all of the software that they need, right? It allows them to choose a developer or a development team or maybe a company that does a distribution in the way that they want it to be done. So let's just say they like the way canonical does things they can choose a boot to. If they want a more independent type of thing but prefer a more major distribution they can choose Arch which isn't corporate backed but still is a very large distribution with a big community and all that stuff, right? So depending on what you're looking for the amount of distributions allows you to have basically unlimited choice over what you use and that is always a good thing. And just to kind of go along with that if you're using a distribution and it starts to go into a direction that you no longer agree with. So let's just say Ubuntu decided to start using snaps for literally everything, oh wait, they're already doing that but let's just say you disagree with that position, right? You don't really, it was okay when it was just one snap or two snaps but now that they're putting the printer service in snaps and they're gonna put everything else in snaps you don't like that. You can leave Ubuntu and go use Linux Mint or elementary OS or any other Ubuntu slash Debian based distribution if you want to stay on that side or you can go use Manjaro or Endeavor OS or Arch or Gen2 or Linux from scratch, whatever. If the direction that Ubuntu or whatever district you're on no longer suits you you can easily move to another distribution and that is always a good thing. That freedom to do so is what makes Linux great. Now I know some people will argue that Linux isn't really about choice. I think that's total nonsense. Of course, Linux is about choice. Linux is about having choices. Maybe it's not about choices but it's about having choices and having the freedom to do what you wanna do when it comes to what you use on your computer. That's really what Linux is about. So choice I think is the big one for arguing against the idea that there are too many issues. The next one kind of counters one of the arguments I talked about in the other section and that is that because a lot of the extraneous smaller Linux distributions are actually derived from the larger distributions a lot of the support issues that I talked about in the first section can kind of be nullified because if you're using say Linux Mint and you don't have an answer for one of your support questions a lot of times you can get the answer from the Ubuntu support people or the documentation for Ubuntu because Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu therefore a lot of the things that can go wrong can kind of apply to both distributions. Same thing if you're using Manjar if you can't find the support in Manjar a lot of times you can find the support on the ArchWiki or whatever. So you can go search out the parent distro and a lot of times get the support that you need if you can't find it with the distribution that you're using because it's a derivative distro or whatever. So the idea that the support on smaller more rare distros is a bad thing can also kind of be nullified again because a lot of those are derivatives of something bigger with a better support system. The next one is that spreading out Linux in a lot of distributions is essential for Linux's survival. If only Canonical existed and therefore only Ubuntu existed when or if Microsoft decided to buy Canonical and then therefore owned Ubuntu we'd all be using a Microsoft product and as we know that's universally bad of course, right? So the idea for this one is that because there are so many Linux distributions if one of them gets snapped up by a large corporation that we don't agree with or hate with a passion because they think Linux is cancer or whatever, we can all migrate and mask off from that distribution to something else because there are many other Linux distributions. Also because not all developers who develop open source software that is essential to Linux work for Red Hat and OpenSUSE and Canonical it allows there to be some power in the community over what Linux is in the direction that Linux goes. Now obviously power is usually associated with money and a lot of the money that develops Linux comes from major corporations. So the power imbalance there definitely does exist but unlike in the proprietary sphere where all the power is with the corporation with the community aspect of Linux and because there are so many developers that work outside of the corporate influencing corporate sphere some of the power at least exists within the community and that's always a good thing. It allows for the Linux ecosystem, the Linux community, the Linux everything just kind of to have a stability and to have a longevity that other things may not have. So that's a good one I think. One of the things that I didn't talk about in the other section is that a lot of people think that because there's so many distributions that software can kind of become isolated on certain distributions. And this is a very new user idea because if you've never used Linux or you haven't used Linux for very long you may think that you can only use Steam on Ubuntu because if you go to the Steam documentation you'll see that technically Steam only runs on Ubuntu. They only support Ubuntu, they only talk about it being installed on Ubuntu or at least that's the way it was. I'm not sure if it actually still is that way but for the longest time Ubuntu was the official distribution of Steam. So if you wanted to game on Linux you had to use Ubuntu or at least that's the way the documentation made it seem. So if you're a new user you may think that the software that you need is kind of limited to certain distributions. That's almost universally untrue. Any software that you want can be installed basically on any distribution that you use. And this whole point is kind of becoming even more moot with the popularity of containerized package formats things like Snap, like Flatpak, like app images. Don't use the app images, it's not good. Anyways, the point is is that because those things are starting to exist and those are all dis-diagnostic you can use those things to install Steam on any distribution it's gonna work exactly the same no matter what. So with the popularity of those things the whole software silo idea kind of really does go away even though it never really existed to begin with. And finally this one is more niche but I think it is really important. One of the ideas that makes Linux really really good is that it works on really old hardware. So if you have a 15 year old laptop that only supports 32 bit you can go out and find a distribution that still supports 32 bit and you can use that distribution on your really old hardware. Because there are so many distributions we can allow those distributions that support really old hardware to continue to exist to continue to get support and updates and all this stuff. Those smaller distros that support that older hardware allow the more mainstream distributions your Ubuntu's, your Arch's, your Fedora's to drop the support for 32 bit and other older software libraries and things like that. And it doesn't hurt the ecosystem it allows people to still use that old hardware they just have to use different distros. And that is a good thing because it allows them to have the choice to continue to use their hardware while the rest of us live with more modern hardware if we have the ability. So the idea is that with more distributions more hardware can be supported which is always a good thing considering that if you're living on the Windows side of course hardware on that end is almost always eventually going to be eliminated in some form or fashion. Even though Windows taught itself as you allowing a whole bunch of legacy things like they really like it that you can use a 40 year old printer if you want which is fine of course but they also cut off support for four year old CPUs with their TCM or whatever it is chips or whatever. So Windows obviously has a harder problem supporting older hardware whereas Linux because we have such a large ecosystem of distributions you can support older hardware much easier. So those are the reasons on both sides of the Arduino. There are probably some others that I just kind of missed and if you have ideas on what those arguments could be on either side leave those in the comments section below. My personal opinion on this whole thing is that of course there's not too many Linux distributions. Does the fact that there are a lot of Linux distributions cause there to be some problems? A wordy way of asking question but yes too many Linux distributions does cause some issues when it comes to new users to discoverability and all this stuff. That's absolutely true and it can't be argued. But on the other hand I think that the benefit of having a lot of Linux distributions I think outweighs the negative aspects of there being so many because it gives people choice and choices I think it's almost always preferable to less choice and I think that it provides developers choice and it provides developers power it gives the community power over Linux as a whole. I think that the amount of Linux distributions is just a good thing overall and the benefits just clearly outweigh any of the negatives. Now, whether or not you agree with me or not really kind of depends on your experiences with Linux. Like if you've had a hard time finding a perfect Linux distribution you may come on down on either side of this argument depending on your experiences. For me personally I like to have the choice to choose what distribution that I want to use and while I'm trying to stabilize my choice and kind of finally settle down on one and just kind of stay there forever and that's been a process and a journey for me but because I had the choice to do that that gives me some power over my own freedom my own choices and all that stuff. So where do you come down on this? Are there too many Linux distributions? Answer the question in the comment section below I'd love to hear from you but if you haven't already leave a like on the video I would really appreciate it it really does help the channel. You can follow me on MasterDown or Odyssey, those links will be in the video description. You can support me on Patreon at patreon.com slash the Linux cast. Links for Libre AirPay and YouTube will be in the video description as well. Thanks to everybody who does support me on Patreon and YouTube because they're all absolutely amazing without you or the channels which are not anywhere near where it is right now. So thank you so very, very, very much for your support, I truly do appreciate it and thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time.