this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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But that's not how humans work. All those developers wouldn't be together working at the same project. because each one have different viewpoints on how things should work. Also, the different complexity of projects, both on code and on management, will attract or repel different people. The idealized single project in which all foss developers work together, maximizing innovation and maintenance, is impossible and will never exist. Fragmentation in the end is also a way to maximize the human work put into foss, and making people who don't agree or even dislike each other collaborate indirectly.
Also, users somewhat decide how much fragmentation is acceptable. For example, a few forks of debian will attract some user base, because they might offer something people have a demand for, but the hundreds of minor forks will just die from lack of userbase. Some could say that they're then a waste of developer effort, but would those developers work in debian itself? Probably not, for many reasons