What happens if a distribution gets abandoned?

[kpbotbot]

I have no idea why I'm thinking like this. I mean, this is too much long term thinking, but I can't stop myself from being curious. This is why I choose mainstream distros.

Anyway, back to the question.What if a specific distribution gets abandoned and assuming that no one would take over the maintenance of repositories and the overall stuff of the distro, what would most likely happen?

What if the user had so much customization that he would never want to switch to another distribution? Is there an easy way of transferring everything from a distro to a distro?

Do we start over? Or do we do the updating of the system (our installation in our own pc) ourselves?

Lol, just curious. As I've said, my brain thinks too longterm

[Dapper Dan]

Hi kpbotbot, good question. Speaking for myself, if CRUX ever went inactive I'd be very upset and disappointed but the reality is, if I wanted to stay in the game, I'd go with a similar distro. Something like Gentoo, Slackware or Arch. Probably Slackware since I've used it before and am comfortable with using it. I don't think many Linux boxes get so customised that you could not create a similar environment under another distro. After all, it is all Linux. It might take a little longer to get things as I wanted them but I like that process and learn a lot from it.

[jayd512]

I've thought about that myself, and pretty much came up with the same answer as Dan.
My main 2 installs are Fedora and CRUX. I don't see Fedora getting dropped, but if it does I may go to Scientific... Been curious about it

CRUX is hopefully gonna be around for me... but if something happens there, most likely I would choose Slack or Gentoo.

If Mint goes, Debian proper is there for me.


But as far as losing everything... nope. I would find another way to hack my way to a happy box.

Either that... or find a way to take up the mantel and take over maintaining the distro... which is WAY beyond me at this point!

[kpbotbot]

I see. I was also worried what I would do when they drop their repositories and stuff! xD

Anyway, what other distributions are similar to Fedora? So far, this distro was the only one that had flawless Wireless support.

[impert]

What happens if a distribution gets abandoned?

Another argument in favour of multibooting!

What if the user had so much customization that he would never want to switch to another distribution?

I'm under the impression that theoretically at least it should be possible to start with any Linux distro and hack it until you've got any other one. Any comments?

Anyway, what other distributions are similar to Fedora?

See this page

[oz]

I think that most distributions that have a multitude of loyal followers would have someone that's willing to pickup a failed distro and keep it going forward, or someone might fork it into another direction. Many times that would be one or more users currently on the development team for any particular distribution.

The easiest way to transfer from distro to distro is to keep all important data or at least a copy of it on an external drive, and to keep notes on hand about any customizations so that you can get back to that point quickly should it be needed. I personally tend not to worry much about any particular distro failing because there are so many to choose from that I could adjust to quickly if forced to do so.

[MASONTX]

I agree with jayd. By picking a version of ubuntu, Mint in his example, you have Ubuntu proper to fall back on if Mint goes away. Since Ubuntu is based on Debian, if Ubuntu becomes history, then you can fall back o Debian. As a newbie, it makes sense to me to pick a distro that is widely supported and has a large community, and that is based on a major linux distro like Debian. For that reason most of the stuff I have been playing around with is one form or another of Ubuntu.