Which distros are derived from Ubuntu? I know that Mint, elementary, Zorin, are Ubuntu-based. (I'm not counting the Ubuntu siblings, like Lubuntu, Xbuntu, etc). I know Manjaro is Arch, and obviously Red Hat and Fedora are not Ubuntu relatives. Is there some kind of family tree that shows the various distros and their ancestries?

I ask because it would help me in understanding what distros I might like to try. Obviously, Ubuntu derivatives are quite user friendly. But my computer has an AMD processor, and I recently learned that Ubuntu doesn't always work right on that kind of machine. And I do have some minor problems. So, I might like to try some non-Ubuntu-based distros.

Here you go...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution

Thanks Michael. I was wondering if there is an actual family tree, like you see in your ancestry search. If not, this would be a good project for someone. I would attempt it myself, but as I am barely more than a newbie, it would take forever. I'm sure there are folks out there who could put this together quickly, if indeed it has not already been done.

OK, I did some checking and came up with this, which is pretty decent, as far as I can tell:

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/..._distributions
However it does not have Deepin or Zorin on it, two pretty popular distros.

There's another one that looks like it has everything, but is so huge you can't really make out anything:

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/..._distributions
Im not sure what to do with this. Use a microscope?

If you want a nice cladogram, there is GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline. Unfortunately, out of date for some years now.

Hi,
Maybe some of these will help you;Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

Here is a short list of distros which are not offsprings of some other distro, but there are many distros based on these.

Gentoo
Arch
Debian
Slackware
Red Hat

And more.

you definitely need a microscope for that!

as far as i'm concerned, i prefer the approach that the previous post suggests:
find the distros that are NOT based on anything else, and suddenly you have a much better overview!

Look at
http://distrowatch.com/search.php
You can search for "based on" or "not based on" and lots of other useful criteria.

Thanks folks, you've given me some great suggestions which will help me enormously in understanding Linux Genealogy. I can't believe how many distros there are. You almost think you're dealing with a branch of zoology that has been evolving for millenia here.

Hi,

I just checked this one from the ones I suggested Linux Distro TimeLine <- 'Ver. 11.10 (zoom capable) and you just click the image to zoom and the Ubuntu timeline is mid point with all branches.

I have used this timeline before and it does get periodic updates.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <Ubuntu> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Thanks Onebuck. After a quick look, I can't find three of my favorites: Elementary, Deepin and Solus. I believe Solus is "built from scratch," although I'm not sure what that means. Elementary I'm pretty sure is Ubuntu based, and Deepin I know is Debian now (was Ubuntu). I recently had to delete Solus, as after a recent update it refused to boot, and I can't get on their forum for some reason. But I plan to give it another go when they come out with their next major release. I also deleted Elementary, to make room for Zorin 12 when it is released. I try to limit myself to two to four distros. At some point, I will probably become bored and want to try something more challenging, like Fedora or something in the Slackware line.

I did find elementary in an older version of this tree, suggested earlier. I also figured out that Solus is indeed considered "independent." It is very impressive, and I predict it's going to be a player. For what my predictions are worth. I don't know my kernel from my fedora.

Also, some very funny names, like Damn Small Linux, and Evil Entity. Even a Satanic Linux (I'm staying away from that one).