A fork is not a bad thing

It has happened again, so I have to wonder again: What’s the reason for a sudden, vitriolic knee-jerk reaction to the idea of someone forking a distro?

After all, you have a slightly different idea of where a distribution should go. You have a plan, a goal, a mission statement and your own favorite wallpaper. What more do you need than that, plus a little ambition, to set yourself up as supreme dictator for life?

I understand brand loyalty, if that’s the reason for the reaction. After all, some people would have every Ubuntu variant ever concocted permanently erased, or at least merged into one megadistro available on a series of six DVDs. But just about every brand out there comes with a clause that says if you want, you can adjust and redistribute it, free of hassle, free of charge and free of obligation. So it’s not like it’s some big surprise that someone actually follows through on that.

Or maybe it’s an inability to see a distro’s shortcomings. I can understand that, if you think your preferred version is all that and a bag of chips. It’s an unfortunate situation, but not a difficult one to understand: Brand X does everything you ever wanted, so it must be perfect for everyone else too, right?

If I had the guts, I would threaten to rerelease just about every distro out there, and effectively double the number of available options, just to annoy the people who are already annoyed by the software buffet before them. And all I would do is tweak the default wallpaper. Oh, if only I had the guts. And the time.

But I won’t dwell on this any longer. I’ve discussed it in the past; splitting off someone’s work and dedicating your time to it does no more harm than take your time away from you. It’s educational, it’s free (short of bandwidth and hosting, I guess) and you’re allowed to, for goodness sake.

So don’t be shocked or rude when it happens. Everybody has to start somewhere, and nobody benefits from that kind of negativity. Be kind to one another. …