… and has problems finding the right answer to it. 😦

However, if I was ever going to find a close count of how many Linux OSes there are, then having one list as the starting point would suffice.

LOL, having only one – comprehensive – list would be, like, totally un-linuxy, would it not? It would restrain the number-crunching, list-creating types of the community in their creativity and freedom of self-expression and ownership of the one truth.

Anyhoo, does it really matter?

We all go through a distro hopping phase when we are new to Linux. For various reasons, if in pursuit of the perfect one for ourselves or just because we can. Installing 20 new operating systems each day gives you the satisfying feeling of accomplishment, which wasn’t possible in the very restricted old world where you had more or less only two choices:

Windows or Mac, which will it be for you?

But even for an distrohopping enthusiast, 600 choices is more than enough, no? Not even the most ridiculous Chinese restaurant has such an extended menu.

Also distro hopping becomes old and stale pretty fast.

Everybody can find their perfect Linux sooner or later and then be happy with it for the rest of their lives. After 9 years my personal Linux world, which was a pretty small one to begin with, came full circle when I found my way back to Manjaro.

Is it perfect? God, nooo!

But as close to perfection as possible and much better for me than all the others I tested and used in my searching for the truth phase.

There was the time I spent on Namib GNU/Linux, yay!, what a nifty nearly 100% Arch distro, only with a plethora of Desktop Environments and Window Managers to chose from. Kinda exactly like what Endeavour is today. But it was made by one single Franco-Canadian schoolboy who left his project for … school stuff. And left a newly homeless Orca behind in the dust.

Go figure.

Than there was the short period I’ve spent on Archman, the Turkish interpretation of the same idea, which I gladly left once Endeavour hit the scene. And now I’m back on Manjaro. Coz it’s comfy as Mint and gives me the least problems.

Do I care if there are 600 Linuxes in our universe or 3000? Fuk, no.

Does it matter, does it make an iota of difference if ChromeOS has 0.9% more marketshare than all Linuxes collected?

I give even less fux about that.

It’s like comparing grapes to raisins, as Chrome comes preinstalled with those nifty inexpensive little Chromebooks, and Linux usually needs us to get hands-on. Or order our hardware at one of those Linux boutiques and pay a bit more for being a fancy user.

There is no useful comparison of Linux and ChromeOS since they are made for different snowflakes!

And for us Linux connoisseurs, well, we don’t care if there are some, or some hundred, less or more distros to play with.

Or do we?

And then Karmi goes on a rant and, for the umpteenth time, quotes Linus Torvalds (the man, the myth, the legend):

Linus Torvalds has said: ‘One of the problems Desktop Linux has is it’s not made for normal people, and by normal people I mean, obviously nontechnical people…‘ (NOTE: A brief update to that, i.e. to now define ‘Technical people‘ as Developers, Programmers, Sysadmins, IT Specialists, Maintainers, etc.)

Let me quickly interfere with Karmi and Linus (the man, the myth, the legend) here. If Orca, if Becca, if Renard or Neil, or any of the Linux users here in the blog, are not normal people, then please, who is? I know we are all special snowflakes but that doesn’t make us not normal, does it?

Being a special snowflake is the new normal!

In fact are we such normal people, we shouldn’t even be allowed anywhere close to the precious GNU/Linux operating systems!

Okay?

PS: I left superspecial ice queen Trap out of the list, since she’s a professional Linux user and meets Linus’ (the man, the myth, the legend) specification of being a not normal people. Also she’s Norwegian, so naturally born to be a very special snowflake/ice crystal.