I'm curious as to how many explanations this question will receive.

Remember: Linux is a kernel, GNU is the userland, GTK and qt are toolkits, X is windowing and a separate project, graphics and sound libraries are different and separate projects.
Packaging systems have a configuration file which can be used as a template to create the same package on another packaging system.
Every tool and program can be ported from one distribution to another.
Firmware is portable when it is for devices.

Hi

IMHO it is Typical user "target"... ppl which like stuff like ARCH, Slackware or Crux are quite likely to dislike stuff like Debian, CentOS or Ubuntu...

Ppl which use Arch/BLFS/Crux are in the "Doer-User" group, ppl which use *buntu are more likely "User" type...

The differences in personality/values/expectations of different people reflect the choices the devs take in making the distros whict these same ppl use...


Someone who uses Debian/Sabayon is quite insensitive to secondary issues like tweaking the distro for faster boot time for instance... this happens in all sectors of preference niche sharing...


Think about vehicles... The guy who uses Debian has a greater appeal for a Car like Mercedes or a Harley Davidson, the guy who uses Arch will more likely opt for something like a Nissan GT-R or a Suzuki Hayabusa GSX1300R...

It's all about end-users personality traits, imho, and the rational expectations that they build around the product that they use... :

Distros, Cars, Houses, Fashion, Games, Hobbies... etc

The major difference between distributions is the package manager and the default set of packages in the install set. Beyond that it's all GNU/Linux with other tools sprinkled in. A distribution is the collection of software, the community behind it, and sometimes a philosophy as to how *nix should run and behave. Many distributions roll their own RC systems or configuration schemas as well as filesystem heirarchy organizations.

Regards,

Alunduil

The people who develop the distributions, their associated levels of intelligence, talent, knowledge, dedication, free time, their philosophy/view on what is important and where "things should be heading".

Package management, mostly.

some architectural differences - where packages are installed by default, the organization of /etc, meaning of the runlevels, location of default mountpoints, and so forth. Of course, the kernels are not compiled with quite the same options from distro to distro either.