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Building on top of Debian or Ubuntu is challenging. Debian is very strict about non-free packages, and normally tries to avoid them, and will even gut non-free

Building on top of Debian or Ubuntu is challenging. Debian is very strict about non-free packages, and normally tries to avoid them, and will even gut non-free binaries from their code. This is an issue when making a distro. If you stick purely with Debian you'll get the Linux-Libre kernel, not the proper kernel. Which really hurts a lot of hardware support, or performance in some scenarios. Ubuntu has a lot of custom packages baked in. These can be stripped but they'll make building on top of the platform difficult. Also the init system differences are challenging + all the weird X stuff they do with Unity. Generally if you want to roll your own distro start with a solid foundation of Gentoo, Slackware, or Arch. Something that isn't picky about its packages, and has less of a moral or business agenda.

willvarfar 12y ago
CrunchBang was Debian-based, right?
- theandrewbailey 12y ago
  #! was Ubuntu based for a long time before it transitioned to Debian in 2011.
aruggirello 12y ago
First, you don't have to live with Unity if you don't like it - you can choose to start from any of the variants: Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu... but you could just use the stripped down ubuntu-server distro, maybe change the default kernel and add a DE/whatever on top of that. Another option would be oem-config, which lets you customise repositories & packages, and end up with an installed system which can then be remastered (by means of rsyncing or by copying whole partitions) before the final user customisation. Ubuntu builder was a nice project too, it's a pity it was abandoned. Someone should definitely resurrect it! Edit: I re-read your comment and understand you're not talking about packages, but rather about actual package contents, paths, init system and the likes. Yes, Ubuntu (and to a lesser degree Debian) has its own ways; it makes no sense to try to undo their customisations - unless you have the power to write your own.

willvarfar 12y ago

CrunchBang was Debian-based, right?

theandrewbailey 12y ago
#! was Ubuntu based for a long time before it transitioned to Debian in 2011.

aruggirello 12y ago

First, you don't have to live with Unity if you don't like it - you can choose to start from any of the variants: Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu... but you could just use the stripped down ubuntu-server distro, maybe change the default kernel and add a DE/whatever on top of that. Another option would be oem-config, which lets you customise repositories & packages, and end up with an installed system which can then be remastered (by means of rsyncing or by copying whole partitions) before the final user customisation. Ubuntu builder was a nice project too, it's a pity it was abandoned. Someone should definitely resurrect it! Edit: I re-read your comment and understand you're not talking about packages, but rather about actual package contents, paths, init system and the likes. Yes, Ubuntu (and to a lesser degree Debian) has its own ways; it makes no sense to try to undo their customisations - unless you have the power to write your own.