Wanna create a Linux dist

[Dave Hall]

Hi Julius,

On Mon, 2009-01-05 at 03:35 -0800, Julius wrote:
> Hello, I need help on how to create a Linux dist. All answers acerpted thanks

Ok, lets start with the broad brush stuff and go from there.

What is the purpose of your distro?
This is the fundamental question.  If you don't already have an answer
to this question, give up now.

What is the size of the potential userbase?  
This again is a pretty important question.  This help you build the
business case for the distro.  Even though this might be a spare time
hobby project it still needs a business case of some form.

What alternatives already exist?
You should have spent several days on this.  What are their names?  What
are their strengths and weaknesses?  Run each one for an hour or 2 in a
VM and see how they go.  What is their community like?

Why not join an existing distro team and help them?
If the answer is "cos I want to do it all myself" then you are in for a
rude shock - building a distro isn't a 10 min job.  It takes time and
understanding.  If you just want to change a couple of default packages
on a CD, that isn't really building a distro - it is remixing one.  Most
of the popular distros have tools for doing this.

Sorry if I haven't given you a stack of links and said great come back
tomorrow with a download link.  If you are serious about building a
distro, then look at what is already around, in most cases you are
better off joining an existing community and building a remix.

If you think that you can handle version control, build infrastructure,
release management, marketing, security patches, support, community
building and working with 100s of upstream projects by yourself then go
for it build your own distro, even if it is based off an existing
distro.

Ubuntu is different to a lot of other distros.  Mark was able to use his
cash to hire some of the smartest FOSS developers to help build his
vision.  He was also able to build off the massive base of package
provided by Debian and use their tools to make package management
simple.  Mark was already involved in the FOSS community - he knew what
he was signing up for.  If you have that kind of money, I am willing to
consider work for you :) (as I am sure others on this list are too).

If you have made it this far - great!  I haven't completely turned you
off.  

Here is my suggestion.  Look at building a remix (or a few remixes).
Learn how to just put things together a little differently.  Next start
to learn package building.  Start with recompiling existing packages.
Find one you really like and join the team that packages it.  Now you
have got this far you can start running your own package repo.  Then
start building CDs with your packages and the official builds - watch
the licensing requirements for source code and trademarks.  Once you are
at this point you should be able to work out what to do next :)

Good luck with your project.

Cheers

Dave