Distro-mergings. Is it really a good thing?

My distro, JAMD, previously at http://www.jamd-linux.com, now archived at http://www.jamd-linux.com/upgraded69/index.php has merged with Blue Linux, and apparently has birthed Ares Linux http://www.ares-linux.com. Downloads are expected in February.

I found out about this today when jamd-linux.com forwarded to the ares-linux site. (I've been away from the computer for a few days). There was news released today that Jim (the developer of JAMD) is leaving developing of both distros to focus more on his family.

Is distro-merging a good thing? Should smaller distros all merge together to a super-linux that can provide a super-newb linux distro of some sort? (that's what JAMD's intention was.. a distro your grandmother could run).

JAMD had a forum of 900 members. I'm not sure about Blue Linux.

Any advice? Does this sound like a really good thing? Maybe I'm just too cautious, but the fact that my Distro is being liquidated has me both confused, frustrated and sad.

Trinity

Its sad the JAMD has gone, but think about it this way, you haven't been left with nothing, the new Ares Linux will probably contain everthing that JAMD did.

If they merge the best of both while dropping the bad then its a good thing. Until you try it you can't tell if this is good. and if it isn't theirs plently of other distro's out there to try, maybe you'll find one you like, even better than you liked JAMD.

that's true, I'm just not happy with the sort of 'forced' upgrade that is required, as in a few weeks it's apparently going to be Ares or bust, since at best the Jamd-forums will be read-only, at worst they will be gone completely.


Trinity

As a general point, personally don't have a problem with consolidation/merging in some areas - if there are a number of groups of people working on small Consumer oriented distros, each one essentially replicating some of the work in the others, then a pooling of resources could be beneficial.........

you posted this topic just a few minutes before me.

ah, someone else on JAMD. good to know :P 'tis my lightning-fast reflexes. or something.

does anyone know if its common practice for smaller distros to merge? I've only been immersed in the linux environment for half a year so I'm not up and up on what's occurred in the past.

Trinity

I've been using Jamd too, 0.6 here, and I thought it was better then Redhat 9.0. Flash and apt-get right out of the box . I also got surprised now that it's gone. As everybody said it's good if they merge the good things of both of them. That would lead to improvements and less bugs too when a bigger number of peoples are involved to make something. I remember that Jamd 0.6 had Gimp, but it was broken, but you could fix it with apt-get. This sort of things will probably be wiped out later .

Also, almost all distros are taking a new lane this year. It's announces from MS, win2k3 server is out. Most of them, as Redhat itself, are taking a new position to survive the new IT demands, from my humble point of view, that could be the very same thing happening with Jamd... perhaps