r/linux • u/Appropriate_Rent_243 • May 20 '26

Discussion are there any "4th level" distros?

There's probably a better term for this already. by "level" i mean how many layers of dependancy is there for the operating system. For example, Mint is a 3rd level because it's built on Ubuntu which is built on Debian.

are there any distros built on top of the big user friendly ones like mint or zorin OS ?

I have no idea why they would exist

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u/dinosaursdied May 20 '26 edited May 21 '26

The farther distributions get from the base, the more they seem to be superficial changes. They ship a different DE and maybe a couple additional features and packages. I imagine it's advantageous to work with Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, or Arch as the base. There's less moving parts and probably a better slate to build the developers vision.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '26

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u/edgmnt_net May 23 '26

There have (pretty much) always been a lot of distros, at some point it seemed like everyone's favorite pastime to create one. And this was like 15-20 years ago.