this post was submitted on 28 Feb 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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Fedora is a community project but ultimately owned by Redhat. They own the trademarks and the domain. They could stop support for it at any time they, or their owners, IBM, decide it's not in their interests to continue supporting, or even allowing, it. People will say "Sure, but you could fork it" and I don't doubt that it would be forked, and there's enough userbase to make that fork successful and arguably better, but then it wouldn't be Fedora.
That does seem unlikely since Fedora is a fundamental part of Redhat's upstream for their main Linux project, RHEL and would require a bit shift in their model, but they have made some odd decisions over the past few years that have upset the community. (Ending Centos Linux 8 with very little warning, and then trying to block source distribution for the rebuilders that stepped in to replace Centos Linux. Centos was a community owned project back along, by the way, founded by Greg Kertzer who was forced to give it up, which indirectly led to Redhat taking control over it and ultimately ending Centos linux entirely. This was its own huge controversy and did not paint Redhat in any kind of warm and fuzzy light)
So I don't trust Redhat as much as I did half a decade ago because of these reasons, and more generally because of their corporate sellout. No matter what their supporters and community say, Redhat are a for-profit company that made decisions which upset the community even before it was bought out by a huge multinational with a long history of choosing profit over ethics.
So stick with Debian if you want to stay clear of corporate linux ownership. I'm afraid that does include the entire EL group - Fedora, RHEL, Centos Stream and even the rebuilders, Alma and Rocky. (Two projects that I really love but are vulnerable to further changes by Redhat)
Yep, that's exactly what I care about and one of the reasons I ditched Ubuntu. I guess I'll look into OpenSUSE as a potential alternative if I feel like distro-hopping in the future (although I know even less of its relationship with SUSE).
Why don't you look into projects that aren't related to a company? Aren't Ubuntu, fedora, and open suse the 3 that have corporate support? There are plenty of distros out there that are stable on the Debian branch and a lot of interesting projects on the Arch branch as well.
I'm just learning about all this stuff but yeah, I'll definitely take a look at Arch, although just out of curiosity, since I am overall satisfied with Debian.