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The Great Linux World Map 113

Posted by Soulskill from the continental-drift dept.
N1ckR writes "Mrk has posted a fun Linux world map including 'The Suse Lake,' 'Noob Desert' and the 'Forbidden Land of Gentoo.' He said, 'The Great Linux World Map is a fun endeavor trying to portray the world of the Linux desktop as a sort of a Typus Orbis Terrarum. The map is no way representative in terms of actual market share usage or popularity. It's just a wild envisioning of how I see things, more or less.'"
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The Great Linux World Map More

The Great Linux World Map

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  • Don’t get it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anrego ( 830717 ) * on Friday May 13, 2011 @10:43AM (#36118716)

    All they did is give geographic-ish names to the various distros and randomly place them on a world map. Very little about the placement, and really not much about the names, is specific to the distros, and there are no distro specific features added and as is said in the summary this isn’t showing popularity or any other statistic. Ok, so Fedora is touching Red Hat,. the noobs are in ubuntu.. haha?

    Am I just being thick and missing the point/humour here, or is this really just a dud?

    • Re:Don’t get it (Score:4, Insightful)

      by 0racle ( 667029 ) on Friday May 13, 2011 @10:47AM (#36118774)
      I think it's a dud to generate traffic. By the summary itself, it's not based on anything but wild imagination.

      Someone is trying to be xkcd.

      • Re:Don’t get it (Score:4, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 13, 2011 @11:00AM (#36118992)

        Someone is trying to be xkcd.

        Exactly. But Randall at least uses data to backup his maps (to decide their relative size and position). These just seem randomly placed.

      • If you have been following Dedoimedo, you would know it doesn't need to generate traffic. ;) He is a damn good writer about games, security, Linux and other OSes.

        More likely it's a new Linux user who found "the forbidden lands of Gentoo" funny.

      • Too bad the called Ubuntu a communist state. That plays right into the hands of Microsoft and proponents of closed source programs

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I found it amusing, so you must be missing the humour

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      All they did is give geographic-ish names to the various distros and randomly place them on a world map. Very little about the placement, and really not much about the names, is specific to the distros, and there are no distro specific features added and as is said in the summary this isn’t showing popularity or any other statistic. Ok, so Fedora is touching Red Hat,. the noobs are in ubuntu.. haha?

      Am I just being thick and missing the point/humour here, or is this really just a dud?

      yeah, weird placement and stuff that's straight wrong...if they connect fedora & red hat, they should link debian & ubuntu by land.

      Where's the SuSE breakoffs?

      • And I'm pretty sure Slack should be up at the top by Arch and Gentoo rather than off the coast of Ubuntu... unless Pat's been doing some crazy stuff lately that I've been missing.

        • I thought the same. There should be some rocky sea features between the Ubuntu/Fedora hemisphere's and the Gentoo, Slack, Arch etc area. Also the Slack island should be a fair amount smaller (and I say that as a _long_ time Slack user).

    • Maybe this [levenez.com] or a Linux-specific version of the same thing for mappable data.

    • I would have imagined Debian to have more acreage. Centosia is clever but I too miss the point.
      • Debian is one of the most secure and stable Linux distributions. I haven't used Debian in years, so I don't know if their software is still a bit out-of-date (instead of being bleeding edge, they have been notorious on holding back app versions for the sake of stability). I suspect Debian has a decent install base on servers, but probably not too much on desktop machines ... at least not compared to the likes of Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE. These days CentOS seems to be the front-of-the-pack server distrib

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Anrego ( 830717 ) *

          I suspect Debian has a decent install base on servers, but probably not too much on desktop machines

          I hate Debian on a desktop, but yeah, on a server it's golden! A debian install without graphics is pretty damn solid. All that spaghetti of scripts and symlinks works great if you don't play with it...

          Ubuntu is one of the most bleeding-edge and unstable Linux distributions

          I think I'd give than honour to gentoo (which is what I use on my desktop).

          • I'd give it to Arch, much more bleeding edge than Gentoo, at least if you compare stable to stable. I'm sure someone else is going to come here with a distro that updates even faster than Arch though... and some might consider Fedora with it's ton of backports.

        • I installed Debian in a virtual machine recently to try it out. The current release looks a lot like Ubuntu (before the Unity interface). In fact, without looking closely you could just assume it was Ubuntu.

        • >> Ubuntu is one of the most bleeding-edge and unstable Linux distributions

          I know it's fashionable to bash Ubuntu on /. no matter what, but this conclusion boggles the mind. I don't care if you are pulling that out of your ass, but at least make sure it looks like a turd.

          After burning my fingers with Gentoo five years back (while I was a complete noob), I opted for OpenSuse which literally fried my laptop. After which I have been a happy Ubuntu user - and using it for my primary desktop (and also serv

          • You have to understand my frame of reference. For the past decade I have mostly used FreeBSD and CentOS. I also dabbled with Slackware and Debian. The new crop of desktop-friendly Linux distros such as Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE are unstable as heck compared to traditional Linux distributions. I currently use Ubuntu at home on my desktop, and I haven't too many complaints, but it does have more issues than any Linux distro that I have ever used. I understand that is the down side, and the up side is a l

            • The problem with the idea that Debian is "stable" is that this assumes you're using some old hardware with no graphics. That doesn't work for desktops. Just try installing some old version of Linux, with an old kernel, on a brand-new laptop and see how well it works. It probably won't support a lot of the hardware, and then it won't support it that well. For new hardware, you need a pretty new kernel with the latest device drivers and bugfixes for those drivers.

              This isn't much of a problem on most serve

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by tboulan ( 266562 )

      I think you summed it very well. The map is pretty, but devoid of content.

    • Re:Don’t get it (Score:5, Funny)

      by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Friday May 13, 2011 @11:24AM (#36119322) Journal

      Yeah, it's not that funny. They didn't even map an ARCHipelago.

    • There's bandwidth I'll never get back...

    • Nah it's really just a dud, and worse yet a dud that directly copies XKCD's style without any of his insight or creativity. Dedoimedo is pretty much ready for Hollywood - he's got their modus operandi down cold.

    • there isn't anything to get. It is a fun map. I found it fun..

    • This map is a good idea for some Linux humor, but it really falls short.

      For one, it's missing some important distros, namely SUSE, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, Sabayon, and a few others. Secondly, it doesn't do a very good job of relating them to each other based on popularity, derivation/relation, etc.

      The author does say he's accepting suggestions for version 2.0. Here's my suggestions:
      1) Separate the "world" into two very large continents. One continent is the Debian continent, the other is the Red Hat contine

  • Kingdom of Slackware Cold War (Score:3)

    by Bloodwine77 ( 913355 ) on Friday May 13, 2011 @10:53AM (#36118888)
    Due to extremely different ideals, I suspect the Kingdom of Slackware and the Great Communist Empire of Ubuntu are engaged in a cold war with their respective fingers on the red buttons.

  • It once again associates Linux with communism.

    • I didn't take it as that. I think the tongue-in-cheek "The Greek Communist Empire of Ubuntu" is due to its sheer size (and the USSR was massive geographically-speaking). Ubuntu has a massive install base, especially on desktop machines.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by cide ( 7039 )

        Perhaps its the artist's comment that Ubuntu, like the USSR, is doomed to failure?

        Soviet propaganda from the 1960s and 1970s actually had artistic merit, yet the state still imploded under its own weight. Seems just like Unity. Hmm.

        Maybe I'm reading too much into this and the artist was just randomly throwing political titles in front of proper distro names, concentrating only on getting the spelling right.

        • You may be right. I like the "Rogue State of Mint", because Linux Mint has come out and said that they have no plans on using Unity and will be diverging a bit from the path that Ubuntu is currently taking. The Gnome 2.0 hills dividing them is a nice touch.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Anrego ( 830717 ) *

      Tell you the truth, I think it kind of is...

      The idea being that everyone gives a little by submitting patches and software they write for their own purposes such that everyone benifits, and everyone gets a full blown OS with a huge collection of software.

      Don't see why the association is a bad thing. It may not work as a government, but seems to work ok as a software model.

      • The association is bad because they're not the same thing. When government reassigns scarce physical resources, someone else must lose each and every time someone else wins. With software there's no scarcity, so there's no losing required. That's also why referring to copyright as "property" instead of as an entitlement is such a scam.

        • Then government reassigns scarce physical resources, someone else must lose each and every time someone else wins.

          There's no scarcity in communism by definition (Marx and his followers described communism as "from everyone according to their abilities, to everyone according to their needs". It was supposed to be the society that socialism would transform into after scarcity is defeated by rapid technological progress. In that sense, the analogy is very apt - there's no scarcity in FOSS, and with copyleft, the above description of communism is implemented practically to the word.

          While Westerners have historically referr

          • There's no scarcity in communism by definition (Marx and his followers described communism as "from everyone according to their abilities, to everyone according to their needs". It was supposed to be the society that socialism would transform into after scarcity is defeated by rapid technological progress. In that sense, the analogy is very apt - there's no scarcity in FOSS, and with copyleft, the above description of communism is implemented practically to the word.

            Hmm. There's a difference between saying that there's no scarcity because the cost to produce and deliver a desired good or service is negligible, and saying there's no scarcity because people have embraced a culture in which they do not want anything that they do not actually need. For one, a true lack of scarcity would mean no problem obtaining the things that do need.

            While Westerners have historically referred to Soviet Russia, China etc as "communist", the countries themselves have always maintained that they are "socialist". To remind, USSR stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Communism was always something on the horizon, with a floating date - they were saying they'd have it by 1940 in 1920, and by 1980 in 1960.

            Fair enough. And their theoretical end goal doesn't actually sound like a bad way to live, provided that people go into it willingly. B

            • Hmm. There's a difference between saying that there's no scarcity because the cost to produce and deliver a desired good or service is negligible, and saying there's no scarcity because people have embraced a culture in which they do not want anything that they do not actually need. For one, a true lack of scarcity would mean no problem obtaining the things that do need.

              It was meant to be a combination of both. On one hand, an industrial powerhouse that would fully supply all the basic needs of the population, and then however much could be made on top of that (luxury items, but also what's needed for industrial and scientific advancement etc). On the other hand, people were also supposed to have "evolved consciousness" such that they wouldn't all rush and ask for personal castles and sports cars - basically realizing that every ask to produce something like that - which w

  • !XKCD (Score:5, Funny)

    by numb7rs ( 1689018 ) on Friday May 13, 2011 @10:57AM (#36118942)
    It's like XKCD, but without the funny.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      So, just like xkcd then.

    • Re:!XKCD (Score:4, Informative)

      by Elbereth ( 58257 ) on Friday May 13, 2011 @11:05AM (#36119074) Journal

      XKCD isn't funny, either.

      References to pop culture don't make you funny. Being funny makes you funny.

      • Re:!XKCD (Score:5, Funny)

        by partyguerrilla ( 1597357 ) on Friday May 13, 2011 @11:29AM (#36119370)
        There are two types of people in the world: 1. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        You're no fun.

      • And being a bitter, begrudging old curmudgeon makes nothing funny at all!

        • Actually, that's not entirely true. I find bitter, begrudging old curmudgeons uproariously funny. Coming across a particularly dried up old prune and mocking him mercilessly can turn my whole day around.

      • XKCD isn't funny, either.

        References to pop culture don't make you funny. Being funny makes you funny.

        Humor is highly subjective.

      • XKCD isn't funny, either.

        citation needed.

        And counterpoint: yes, it is. Citation: I laughed at it many times. QED, XKCD is funny.

        References to pop culture don't make you funny.

        To get semi serious for a minute: Have you read more than one strip? Because I can't think of any off the top of my head that simply boil down to references to POP culture. There were a few that boiled down to mere references to Enders Game, but not pop culture.

        Being funny makes you funny.

        I can't argue with circular logic, I guess you're right. By extension, XKCD is not funny because it's not funny.

  • the top level subject, wild geeky thinking, meant to inspire just a smile

    and the dismissive comments, taking deeply seriously the silliest of things

    shut up and laugh, and get the stick out of your ass

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Knock knock!
      Who's there?
      Apple!
      Apple who?
      Apple tree!

      HAHAHAHAHA!!! ...What do you mean my joke isn't funny, and you're annoyed that I wasted your time on it?!

      Just shut up and laugh, and get that stick out of your ass!

  • Thank goodness. Now I can show my kids where I had wandered through the n00b desert learning how to decipher the sacred man pages. ;)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jhoegl ( 638955 )
      I am wondering where the Patent Troll Pirates are and the Corporate Shame of Closed Source.
  • I come from Mandrivaland in peace....

  • xkcd knockoff? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by compulord155 ( 1369523 ) on Friday May 13, 2011 @11:03AM (#36119028)
    Anyone else notice that it looks strikingly like xkcd maps [xkcd.com] from the past [xkcd.com]? Of course with much less wit, organization and forethought.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Xupa ( 1313669 )
      Exactly. Way to rip off a great idea without bothering with any of that bothersome methodology.

  • Channeling Lloyd Bentsen... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I've read xkcd, I know the xkcd maps. You, sir, are no xkcd.

  • ... the sea monster? How can you have a world map without a sea monster?

    Better yet, a C++ monster.

  • You make Randall Munroe cry (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Comic Sans ? No relation to real data (at least from Distrowatch !) ?

    Seriously !?

  • So it's a rip off of many of Randal's maps. Except his are usually clever and funny and in many ways actually representative of what he's mapping. There's just no reason for this map to exist. I'm not saying someone couldn't make a good Linux distro map, this is just not that.

    From one comment to this story: "shut up and laugh, and get the stick out of your ass". I would love too laugh... except it's not funny. Why must I be uptight with a stick up my ass just because I don't find this submission to be funny? And why is Ubuntu labeled as "Communist"? I get the whole GPL==communist thing, but other than Red Hat, Ubuntu is about as commercial as it gets. It would make way more sense if a geological feature relating to the GPL, GNU, or even Debian had the "Communist" moniker. Also, I see there's a "Mount chroot"... Why is chroot a mountain? It would have been funny if chroot were a small enclave with fewer and smaller features than its surrounding nation. If anything, sudo should have been a mountain, instead of a cape.

  • Thank you! Now I have a modern day version of this...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-zs7jKcGDg#t=3m4s

  • I think there's plenty to be critical about this map, but I'm not going to take it seriously enough to blast it.

    However, it woulda been neat to see some representations of linux distributions/efforts that have disappeared along the way -- maybe as piles of rubble or something. Midori Linux, anyone? Perhaps a dot in Linus Bay...

  • sudo apt-get install YOU!
  • So much potential here, and they ruined it by using COMIC SANS.

  • Greetings from a user living in "The Forbidden Land of Gentoo!"

    While there are times when prebuilt packages (such as this map) are beneficial, I suspect this is not one of them. We, the Gentoo userbase, encourage you to compile your own maps! Only then will they be most accurate and most efficient for your local implementation!

    Happy Emerge-ing!

    Katyrnyn / Cydonian Monk

    (Resident of "The Highly Efficient (yet occasionally broken) Free State of Gentoo" since 2002.)

  • gNewSense is missing in the Stallman Sea. It's unfortunate, considering that gNewSense is the only distro RMS recommends.

  • FTA: I hope you like this! If so, feel free to spread the word!

  • Sadly, he didn't mark out the huge Caldera on the ocean floor...

  • Where is the Puppy Linux island? ÊâÊ

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