jsveiga
Compatibility, testing, dependecy trees. You either don't understand or pretend not to. Either way, I've wasted too much time with you already. Bye.
Really? Did you diff everyone of them? And will every distro maintainer swear that they will never do it, just to help whiney distro hoppers?
Well, they do, and even when they don't, they won't commit not to forever, just to help distro hoppers.
Yes, if all *ubuntu variants were maintained by Ubuntu maintainers. But since that's not the case, again, it would be complicated for releasing.
Many distros already offer window manager options when installing, but that's inside the same distro, not bits and pieces of different distros with possibly different release cycles and dependencies.
One distro may not wish to be "absorbed" by the other.
And could you identify (and get all such distros and their "core distro" source to agree on) what exactly are the "system software", which the "customizers" must never ever need to change, and that the "core distro" will forever have to coordinate with their "partners" before any new release or update?
Can't you see it would be a lot of extra work and risk for maintainers, just to make your distro hopping (maybe) quicker?
I don't know any distro that only changes non-system software and UI customizations. They all package all their components and include the packages in their repo.
Again (and again and again), this gives them control over dependencies and compatibility tests.
Even if they just recompile & package the components with no modifications from the upstream sources, they are the ones who test their whole set of packages.
I realize now that you think the only difference between distros is the GUI. Some may be simply that, or close to that (kubuntu x ubuntu for example), but it's not always the case.
So your original post shouldn't be about "distros" but GUI options. Some distros indeed let you choose from different WM, but as I've been repeating, in this case they're packaged and tested by the maintainers of THE SAME DISTRO.
You and OP probably are confusing "distribution" with "UI customization". Granted, lazy distros may by simply that, but not all of them.
ha, so you don't mean having multiple distros dropping their "base systems" and only providing the "addon" part in their repos, but actually having the "core" distro include all the "addon" flavors into their repo. haha really, really "simple".
"Hey debian, I'm a one man operation out from North Korea, and I made this customization package. I swear it complies with every privacy and security policies, and that it is compatible with your core system. No it won't break anything. Can you please include it in your repo?"
but, but, then who will filter the news they're fed with, so that they only get exposed to opinions they "like", thus reinforcing whatever polarized view they have? Why would they want to access ANY news??
It's the guts of 3.5" floppies, like these, they usually stored 720kB, then 1.44MB, but the latest versions (double sided) were 2.88MB.
The larger one at the bottom is from a 5 1/4" (orange in this picture, the big daddy in the picture is 8", first type I used, with COBOL)
... and now you kids know where the "save" button icon came from.
They were not meant to be removed from their protective envelopes, they're probably damaged now.