OK, this is not a which distro is best, or I use use this therefore so should you.

This question has arisen out of curiosity and the need for a quick reference.

So the question is this, What are the main Linux Distro Bases?

To start the answers, I know of the Fedora Core and Debian. But are there any other Main Bases that all the other distros have evolved from?

e.g. from Debian has grown Knoppix.

I am also interested to find out what the main Window Managers are. I know of Gnome, KDE and fluxbox.

These two questions may be most easily answered in the from of, and I give an example that may or may not be wholly correct:

Distro: Knoppix
Base: Debian
WM (If pre-packaged): KDE

This may turn out to be a quick reference to all of us, as a kind of overview of which distros have which base, etc.

To me version numbers are not important, to some they might be. But as they can change so rapidily only include them if you feel you need or want to.

Many thanks.

I'd say debian for sure and then maybe Slackware i have seen a few slack distros like Vector, Minislack, Mutagenix, Slax, Frugalware i think and maybe a few more. As far as WM its Fluxbox, Blackbox, Openbox, IceWM and WindowMaker. The top two DE will probably always be GNOME and KDE.

Do you mean the top two?

haha yeah sorry just woke up.

np

on the WM front, there is also, I have just found out, FWVM95 as used by mulinux and puppy linux

Distro: Damn Small Linux
Base: Debian (from Knoppix)
WM: Fluxbox

Distro: ZipSlack
Base: Slackware
WM: none

Distro: Insert
Base: Debain (from Knoppix)
WM: Fluxbox

Distro: Puppy Linux
Base: fedora core ?
WM: FWVM95

Distro: muLinux
Base: ???
WM: FWVM95

Distro: Feather Linux
Base: Debian (from Knoppix)
WM: Fluxbox (Standard), IceWM (Included)

i think puppy is based on fedora core and on the WM subject i keep meaning to try a new one, FVWM and AfterStep both look good.

There are many distros based on Knoppix... and Debian, as Knoppix is based on Debian...
I believe second place include distros based on Slackware... and there are distros based on Mandrake, Fedora, Gentoo...
Many distros include KDE and another WM... and many distros include Gnome... and XFCE... and Fluxbox...
I don't know any other distro beside GoblinX which includes Enlightenment...
Slackware based and Debian based are two big families...
I don't know any list like yours, maybe will be interesting create one like livecdlist.org, but including origin distro and wm choices... like this example:

Name - Based on - Type - Windows Managers - Size
GoblinX - Slackware - Livecd - KDE, Xfce, Fluxbox, Enlightenment and WMaker - 302,5MB

thankyou for the responses so far.

I suppose the biggest reason I am asking this question (mainly of the Distro family rather than the VM (as that can be changed anyway)) is so that I can make a more informed choice of which distro to choose. I know the Distro's themselves have there own little quirks, but by knowing teh fmily gives a bit more insite. i.e. on the package front, by knowing the base, it is, in theory easier to work out the packages etc... be they deb, rpm, urpmi, etc...

I am currently Installing Pure Debian Sarge from the 2 DVD's i have Jigdo'ed.

"I don't know any other distro beside GoblinX which includes Enlightenment..."
SuSE for one includes enlightenment,just not as a default.

The main bases a lot of distros are built on are RedHat, Debian, Slackware. This makes sense when you consider they are the three oldest surviving distros, Slack being the oldest.

Suse was originally based on Slack but now bears far more resemblence to RedHat than anything.

There are also some independently developed distros, many started with Linux From Scratch. These would include Gentoo and Arch as well as others. While Arch does take some ideas from Slack, it isn't actually based on Slack.

The origin, or base, can most easily be determined by looking at what package management system they use. There is of course some "mix and match" distros that borrow package management from one distro, and other features from other one(s).

tgz, Slack
APT, Debian
RPM, RedHat
pacman, Arch
emerge, gentoo

there is also a relative new package management system called conary that I will be interested to see how it develops. rpath linux (formerly specifix) uses the conary package management system. It's still in alpha at the moment.

I believe LFS is a popular base for new Distros as well

Qilinux and Symphony are something else again. BTW, qilinux is quite nice out of the box.

alinux used to be mostly based on Redhat but now it incorporates Debian and Slack components as well.

Ok, I didn't know that...
Any based distro has its own stuff... We have to know better to see how different they are of their "father"...

This page would be useful for getting a list of distributions based on many criteria or get a full list of every distro out there.

http://www.linux.org/dist/index.html