The Humble Geek

Ask anyone to name things they find wrong with the Linux ecosystem. I expect you'll get responses along the line of:

• GNOME sucks
• KDE sucks
• GCC sucks
• Firefox sucks
• GPLv2 sucks
• RPM sucks
• Gaming sucks

What's the solution most commonly found? "Fork it, bro!"

Forking software is a legitimate reason under specific circumstances:

• Licensing
• M.I.A. upstream

Successful, legitimate forks:

• LibreOffice
• MariaDB
• X.org

Forking is not a clear right to do anything you want such as creating a new distribution with a new, cool name and flashy art logos. Bad forking reasons:

• I want to make a name for myself
• I want a different desktop environment
• I want a different desktop wallpaper

"Why not? I certainly am going to fork it!"

Yes, there is enough software produced for one person to be able to quickly and easily create an ISO file for users to download and call a new distribution. Before you say, yes, ask yourself these questions:

• Do I have at least 5 people to provided a full-time job's worth of time to it?
• Do I / they have enough time to apply security patches and / or update to the latest upstream version for a majority of the software?
• Do you serve a product that provides a clear purpose other than a new desktop or flashy art?

All it takes is one "no" answer to put an end to your forking dreams. Just Don't Do It.