I've seen this term in so many places, so many times.. I don't understand it.. What do you guys mean debian-based?

Is it like taking some distro code, adding more stuff and we get a new distro? hmm...

To put it really, really simple a Slackware-based distro is just a modified Slackware with added packages and a different person/team maintaining it. Usually the most visible similarity is the use of the same package manager as the base distro.

Here we go again.. "the most visible similarity is the use of the same package manager as the base distro."

What's with this package management? Can't i use any package manager i want on any distro i want?

Well, if you really want to, and in many cases, yes.

Package management is just the way a distro handles installing packages containing programs. Some use rpm some use deb some use just tgz. Be careful with the former two as these have a feature called dependency management ... it sounds good, but many times it isn't. It automatically resolves any dependencies a package might need in order to work ... and sometimes it breaks and two packages will need each other or they will not install themselves, so you can't install either ... fun.

Anyway, you seem to be asking a lot of basic questions, I recommend reading:
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
It gets you a lot of the way towards understand a *nix system.

I'm actually already reading this book > http://tinyurl.com/cxyfoo

Yes--in principle.

And, you can install all your SW without using a package manager at all.
And you can build Linux from scratch and design your own package manager.

Just because you CAN do these things does not necessarily mean that you will WANT to.....only you can decide how to spend your time.

Each Linux distro tries to provide a consistent framework for the user--package management is central to that.

By the time you have actually used a few distros, you will start seeing the light.

well i see it like that..

Muhaha distro is using Firefox web browser and now all other distros will be Muhaha-based so they can use Firefox... lol.. i still don't get it..

Isn't it just as easy as installing firefox?

I have no clue what you are trying to say here....

The discussions in your other threads tell me that you already know the answer to this........but--in case you missed it--the answer is.......

No.

I get it why there are so many distros "-based" on other distros? Just so they don't have to install package manager??

If you set out to create a distro, you can:
1. Start from scratch
2. Start with an existing distro and add your own features

The package manager is a small part of the design of a complete distribution.

Also keep in mind that there are many variables in package management--eg:

• The choice of package manager
• The choice of package format
• The choice of packages
• The structure of the repositories

As an example, many Debian-based distros use Synaptic (with .deb packages). But--eg--PCLOS uses Synaptic with .rpm packages.

Some distros that are derived from others can use the same repositories---others cannot.

Repeating some earlier advice: I really think you need to spend more time actually working with a few of the top distros---you are going to get a better understanding that way.

Try this one on for size:

I run 'distro X' but I don't like the way it does something or other. Some other people agree with me, but the "distro X" development team like the way they do things and see no reason to change. At this stage there are a couple of options:

1) All those that want a change can go and build their own distro from scratch in order to do things exactly the way they like, but this will be a lot of work.

2) They can take a copy of 'distro X' as a starting point and make their changes to that, and distribute it as a new distro, which I'm sure you'll agree seems much less effort.

3) We can each customise our own local installs of 'Distro X', but that'll mean a lot of duplicated effort.

Now, within option 2, there are two different ways to proceed.

2a) Every time 'Distro X' releases a new version the people behind the new distro 'Distro Y' take a new copy and make their changes again on top of any new changes that 'Distro X' included.

2b) The new distro makes it's initial copy of 'distro X' and from that point forward it goes it's own way. Any changes made to 'distro X' in future are NOT made to the new distro.

To my mind, 2a is a 'Distro, based on Distro X' and 2b is a 'fork of Distro X' however, some people will use the 'based on...' label for both cases.

What I'm not so clear on, is how much change has to happen before the new distro should lose that 'based on' or 'fork of' label.

Though distros that are based on, or forks of, other distro's generally do stick to using the same package manager, that's really not all that relevant to the term.

Best to think of 'based on' as meaning 'similar to'. You can't safely assume much more than that!

I thik Debians Child-Distro page explains it fairly straight forward..

http://www.debian.org/misc/children-distros

The page goes on to list the various distros and what some of hte reasons for the creation of each of those projects.. or what the projects basic goals were.

Debian based distros tend to be modified for greater usability and accessibility, and almost always use apt-get package manager. Slackware based distros are much more user configurable but harder to use and require prior Linux experience (usually). Slackware based distros often have there own package manager (pacman from Arch, for example) or are source based only.