[nextos]

I really like the desktop environment they have developed, Cinnamon. But I agree with this LWN thread about their broken approach to packaging. Furthermore, I tend to find people commenting in LWN really respectful even if they are critical, as it was the case here.

We are currently going through a bit of a Cambrian explosion of Linux distributions, but some do have indeed shaky technical foundations. Many distributions would fare much better if they were built as a thin layer on top of something clean and reproducible like Gentoo, Arch or, ideally, GuixSD/NixOS.

In reality, we are seeing lots of distributions, like Mint, as a layer on top of Ubuntu. Which in turn is based on Debian. Seasoned users like those posting on LWN find this frustrating as it obscures things a lot.

Personally, I have not seen good technical foundations for Linux distributions aside from things that have either a very simple imperative architecture (like Arch) or purely functional (Nix/Guix).

[tannhaeuser]

Cambrian explosion? The main distros (Debian/Ubuntu, RH/Centos, Arch, Mint, Gentoo, Suse, Slackware) haven't changed in like ten years or more, the only relatively recent additions being the Devuan branch of Debian, and Alpine. Or have I overlooked something?

[leaf_house]

Elementary OS, Void Linux, Deepin, Antergos and Tails are a few notable ones off the top of my head. Void has been around for a minute but has become a lot more popular recently.

[_tulpa]

Elementary is Ubuntu trying to be OSX. Deepin and tails are Debian. A Tetris is Arch.

Void is it’s own thing and xbps was really good when I used it. But since the thing where the one guy with sole control over their resources disappeared, and then losing their domain, and not having a distinct legal entity/org behind it last I checked... I dunno about longevity here despite the project being 10 years old already.

[m-p-3]

Elementary is great, I'm using it on my spare laptop and I have only one complaint and it's the removal of the wingpanel indicator without implementing a proper replacement.

[_emacsomancer_]

Void started in 2008

[X6S1x6Okd1st]

I haven't switched to it as a distro, but I've been defaulting to nix's package manager on top of whatever distro I am actually running.

[untangle]

Check out Calculate Linux.

[glaurung_]

Solus and Elementary come to mind, though I agree I'd hardly call it a Cambrian Explosion.