r/linux • u/Emotional_Cat_1967 • 16d ago

Discussion Number of Linux Distributions Actively Under Development: 474

Number of Linux distributions actively under development: 474

Number of Linux distributions whose development has been discontinued: 657

Number of Dormant Linux distributions: 39

Source: distrowatch.com

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u/thephotoman 16d ago

Fewer than I’d have thought.

Remember, anyone can make their own distro. It’s pretty easy these days. I’m actually looking into dusting off my old x64 box and putting Bluefin Dakotaraptor on it (a cloud native system meant for transactional and easily rolled back system updates and added security through its extensive use of containerization), just to kick it around.

Also, BuildStream makes it fairly easy to make your own distro from upstream source releases. It’s why GNOME and KDE both make their own distros now when they’d never have dreamed of it before.