<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffcc" text="#000000"> John wrote: <blockquote cite="mid43EC9322.7040703@coco2.arach.net.au" type="cite">It's one thing for a special-purpose distro such as Knoppix, Gnoppix, Morphix (and I don't know which if any do) to derive from Ubuntu, and for regional varients to derive from Ubuntu, but another for one whom I'd hoped would contend against Ubuntu to do so. We need competition and diversity to prosper, and one who's beholden to another doesn't provide the competition, and whatever diversity it provides necessarily follows way behind. </blockquote> Actually, if MEPIS were to build on Ubuntu then it would actually increase the competition, not decrease it. It would mean that Mepis gets all the things right that Ubuntu gets right, and then adds ADDITIONAL functionality. That's smart for Mepis (why reinvent the wheel), creates more effective competition, and helps Ubuntu too because we could look more easily at the improvements Mepis has made, and incorporate the ones which are generally applicable back into Ubuntu. And it would be good for Debian too, because I suspect that Ubuntu has the highest rate (though not a perfect rate) of patch migration back into Debian in the long run of all the major distros based on the debian system. I expect that Mepis appeals to a slightly different crowd than Ubuntu, and so there's room for both of us. If Mepis derives from Ubuntu, then that makes them a better competitor to Linspire and Xandros. Mark </body> </html>