Where Will Your Linux Distro Be in Five Years?

....or is this guy even more pointless than dork duck?

Hmm. I don't really think it's just you.

Assuming Patrick is still with us, my distro will be pretty much exactly where it is now. If he isn't, or retires from the Linux scene, then I'll probably switch to either Debian or Arch. He makes this sound a lot harder than it is.

I'm not sure. Does anybody here know if Debian will still be around in 5 years ?

Debian and Fedora stand the greatest chance of being here in 5 or 10 years, since they're not the efforts of a single individual or small group of individuals, and in the case of the company-sponsored distro (Fedora), said company makes a ^&*-load of money.

Sorry, I should used /sarcasm just to be sure.

> {sarcasm} Does anybody here know if Debian will still be around in 5 years ? {/sarcasm}

5 years? It's not impossible that the Stable that will release on May 5th will still be Debian Stable in 5 years.

Just highly unlikely, much like the Infinite Improbability Drive. :^)

While most people here know this, it should be pointed out for the casual reader that the two oldest surviving Linux distributions are Slackware and Debian. It seems unlikely either will be going away any time soon.

It's my understanding (so take it FWIW) that the succession arrangements for Slackware's leadership are already in place.

I wouldn't be surprised. If it involves the folks I think it does, I'm not worried.

@notbob, it probably does. And, given the aptitude already demonstrated from those directions, your calm is well-founded.

> ...the succession arrangements for Slackware's leadership are already in place.

That's my understanding as well.

Calm down folks. It's not as if Patrick Volkerding's favourite sport is blindfolded jogging in front of busses.

Aww, Kikinovak, don't ruin the sport. Speculating about "what if Linus is hit by a bus" is a spectator sport!

Right now I'm mainly using the Red Hat clones. Considering the company is very healthy financially I really expect it will still be around in five years. Of course, the author made the same conclusion about Fedora which also benefits from Red Hat sponsorship.

The way I look at it if you're using a major distro you're fine. Even if it goes belly up someone else will pick up the pieces and continue. Think of Mandriva: Mageia and ROSA seem to be doing fine and provided a good continuation of what Mandriva developed.