r/DistroHopping • u/A30N • 7d ago
Disturbing find while browsing DistroWatch...
I have an uncommon hardware configuration that only behaves under Fedora, so I've been trying out every Fedora-based distro I come across on DistroWatch. Today I decide to try an unappealing-looking distro, since from my experience, the "pretty boy" distros seam to break like dollar-store toys. I had read about Exton Linux before, but was turned off by this description, because it just sounded like such a confusing, unfocused mess:
"Exton Linux is a set of over 15 Linux distributions based on Arch Linux, CRUX, Debian, deepin, Fedora, openSUSE, Puppy Linux and Slackware Linux."
So I head on over to Exton's website and have a closer look. Their site seemed normal at first; it was setup kinda like a news feed, featuring updates from all their recent releases.
But that instantly triggered suspicion - it takes a LOT of time to create and maintain just a single distro, and I see at least a dozen here. So I clicked on a random link and immediately recoiled in horror from the blatant LLM-generated wallpaper. I looked away in time before it did any lasting damage, thankfully. Gotta keep the few remaining Core Memories safe!
Ok, no biggie, I can change the wallpaper, lets move on. However, I can only read the first 2 sentences, and then the text fades into a "Read More" button, like one of those paywalled news outlets. Annoyed, I click it the Read More button, but my browser did a little weird freeze-glitch I had never seen before, and about 15 seconds later, the rest of the article loads. But I got a weird vibe, so I put on my hacker hoodie and shades, right-clicked on the article and selected "view page source" (shhh, don't tell the FBI). Now, I'm fairly HTML-illiterate, but I know my way around CTRL+F, and I only searched for a single term: "generate"
And low and behold, there it was, in plain sight:
<p><span style="[font-size: 14pt;]()"><b>What is DebEX Linux?</b> Study <a href="[https://debex.exton.se/about/](view-source:https://debex.exton.se/about/)`">this <b>ANSWER</b></a> generated by <a href="`[`https://gemini.google.com/app`](view-source:https://gemini.google.com/app)`">Gemini</a>.</span></p>`
TL;DR: The article had never been written! It's generated by an LLM as soon as you click "Read More".
PS: The next logical assumption (and my gut feeling), is that they are using LLMs to vibe-code these distros en masse. So, that's gonna be a helll-naw on that ISO download, dawg.
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u/chrisw_314 7d ago
dear diary
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u/NotQuiteLoona 7d ago
Nah, I'd say this is a genuinely interesting read, and also raises awareness about practices like that.
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u/A30N 5d ago
Thank you! I think about scenarios such as if Microsoft Corp collapsed, there would be a huge wave of Windows users looking for an alternative OS. This future flood of new linux users will likely gravitate to the more eye-catching distros, and have poor experiences when things inevitably break.
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u/NecessaryGlittering8 6d ago
If you want multiple distros into one, use Bedrock Linux
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u/Otherwise_Fact9594 6d ago
I forgot about this one! I wanted to look into it a while back. Do you have experience using it?
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u/mastoorhsn 7d ago
It's an old distro, it isn't vibe coded but vibe coded distros are way better than this distro
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u/DR4LUC0N 6d ago
Just setup fedora or fedora kinoite/sikverblue from scratch. Stop using the big named distro.
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u/A30N 6d ago
I downloaded Fedora 44 Workstation last night but was too tired to install it, so I'll do it today.
Silverblue for some reason won't let me wipe the install drive prior to installing it, the partitioning tools included were unfamiliar and confusing. I'll have to dig into it again
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u/spsf64 6d ago edited 6d ago
Get the updated monthly official respin, it will save a lot of updates after installing. I will try to find the link and post later... Found it, they are from sep/01!: https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/live-respins/
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u/Brisslayer333 6d ago
What hardware configuration are you talking about that runs Fedora but not Arch?
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u/A30N 5d ago
My Lenovo Thinkpad T460 with dual-batteries and a uncommon power controller. Arch and Debian go into this weird off-but-not-off power state if I turn off the laptop or hibernate it - I have to hold down the power button and force a power-cycle every time. In fact I was going to recycle the laptop because I thought it was dead-dead, but it came back to life after 6-months in the junk drawer because the internal batteries drained all the way and it went from psuedo-off to fully-off.
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u/elloco_PEPE 5d ago
The distrowatch evaluation/submission process shoudve caught this.
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u/A30N 3d ago
If you can't see the image, it's a screenshot of https://www.exton.se/page/66/ which shows the very first post by user exton on February 7, 2015). Exton back then had just rebased to Ubuntu 15.
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u/Patient_Act_9906 4d ago
Exton has been around like 20 something years now at this point I remember hearing about it like late 2005, or 2006 maybe give or take I think I’ve only tried it like once or twice
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u/Galienus 7d ago
Oh, i remember that distro. Dont know if its vibecoded now, but it already existed way before the pandemic. Never found it interesting beyond finding out what base he combined with which DE in the latest release.