Creating A Linux Distro! Sort of ....

[@Eyuphuro]

Become a package maintainer of a software you rely on, which is not available/orphaned on Debian.

[@MichaelNROH]

That too 😅

[@altrogeruvah]

I'm personally not a big fan of distro oversaturation. 90% of all derivative distributions could be rendered obsolete overnight with simple bash scripts that can be git clone'd and installed. I think your heart is in the right place though: the end game for most Linux enthusiasts is to contribute to upstream and make their fav core distro into the definitive choice of the future!

[@MichaelNROH]

I hope so. Contributing to the source is always good, no matter if it gets merged or not.

[@friedrichhayek4862]

Wrong. They bring convenience.

[@altrogeruvah]

@@MichaelNROH I agree! Best case scenario: one's hard work is recognized and merged upstream and everyone benefits, worst case scenario: freely available amazing and helpful scripts to buff our favorite distro and everyone still benefits.

[@VallThyo]

A reason is a reason even if you don't agree with it. If there is 1 single thing that annoyed about distro "X" and they won't change that because it's not what they want, why shoulnd't the user also do what they want and change that? And if a lot of people also want that change, making your own distro is just the natural course of things. Linux is built on freedom, including the freedom of making 10 distros a day if you want to.

[@David_Quinn_Photography]

I love yet hate it, like the Ubuntu variants with just different DEs could go away but I am also for the freedom and some of these others remove things I do hate about Ubuntu

[@insu_na]

I thought you were gonna do a playthrough of Linux From Scratch Been compiling my own kernel for years now. I use the tkg patchset, the PDS scheduler and my own custom, cut down driver settings. The TkG patchset and the PDS scheduler are pretty cool, but pruning the drivers to only the drivers I need or might need has barely any effect, except for build time

[@commentarysheep]

I usually only choose Debian for work because I find new features in the software I use important. For a client machine, Arch is the best base I could ever imagine. If I ever wanted to make my own distro, I’d make a Debian-based Server Edition and an Arch-based Personal Edition. The Server release would only ship the core packages, NetworkManager, SSH, OpenVPN and optional dependencies possibly required for cloud/file sharing or government work in the repositories. For the Arch-based Personal Edition, I’d ship the core packages, pre-compiled gaming-focused kernels, propietary Nvidia drivers, NetworkManager, dhcpcd, KDE Plasma and Cinnamon as DE choices, various IDEs from JetBrains, Eclipse and Oracle, Discord, Steam, Steam Deck packages (if you want to hook your PC up to a TV and game from a couch), various Wine and Proton helpers (ProtonUp-Qt, Lutris, Bottles, CrossOver, Lixtorpeda), a custom-made ProtonDB Compatibility Handbook, VM software (libvirt/VirtManager, VirtualBox and VMware), Tenacity (the privacy-respecting Audacity fork), various web browsers (Firefox, Chromium, Brave, LibreWolf, Tor), OBS, Kdenlive, DaVinci Resolve and a kernel customiser GUI to make the compiling and installation of a fine-tuned and personalised Linux kernel way easier, all in the official repos. If you somehow need something else, the AUR and Flatpak always helps out. The KDE flavour would contain no modifications to the stock look and feel, while the Cinnamon flavour would strive for a Linux Mint look and feel and would ship the entire Mint utility stack, ported to Arch. No window managers, though, because a tiling WM is violating the purpose of a GUI; why do you need a GUI if the GUI heavily discourages the use of a mouse? Plus, tiling WMs have exotic shortcuts and are a pain to change them; sometimes you even need to know an esoteric programming language to edit them. And finally, I’d add an optional syntax option to Pacman that heavily resembles the APT syntax to make the package manager more accessible to people. That is because I would make a gamer and programmer-focused Linux distro that always gets the latest everything in a relatively stable package and is easily accessible, yet also heavily customisable. And because of that, if I want to make my distro ready of daily-driver usage, providing the option to install a bunch of useful proprietary packages is a must. Although by default, the Calamares installer would only provide the core packages needed for a TTY environment and networking; you need to tick the boxes in the “Additional Software” section if you want more than a CLI.

[@donaldwilliams6821]

It appears that you haven't spent much time with the variety of tiling WMs out there. Hyprland you can change the bindings on the fly with immediate effect. When I moved to a tiling WM I realized how much time I wasted moving the mouse, moving windows around, both initially and later moving them out of the way. The nice thing about Linux is the choices You want DE, great take your pick! Me I'll take the WM please. You want rock stable with little change in your OS debian is great. You want the latest bits IMHO that's Arch Or gentoo, or whatever you want People will decide what works best for them.

[@PizzaLovingNerd]

If you have an updated version of the packages, than it is definitely a distro, when there's tons of distros that are Arch with a different theme.

[@friedrichhayek4862]

Not, for it being a distro it requires to manager their own repositories.

[@PizzaLovingNerd]

@@friedrichhayek4862 most of them have repos that are just hosting AUR packages they use.

[@alexstone691]

I setup plasma finally and loving it, some things simply work better than on gnome but its much harder to automate than gnome with dconf, i am fine with 5.27 as i used that on kinoite and had a pretty good experience then bookworm released and im probably staying on that for a while, will see if the outdated packages will bother me at all considering i have distrobox and flatpaks

[@k5rin]

i came here from the zorin os video,i just gave another chance to an old laptop (similar to your acer aspire one). I became more interested in linux distributions from that video,i like your vids,keep up!

[@friedrichhayek4862]

4:25 The Open Build Service setups a repository for you.

[@friedrichhayek4862]

4:15 Especially if the Open Build Service does it for you.

[@BWGPEI]

This is a big step for you and one I may never take. But, the grin on your face suggests that you at least are having fun. What I remember of compiling Linux many years back was a lot of anxious moments followed by boredom whilst the compiler ran. Today's systems will save a lot of time, so maybe I should reconsider. I will be paying attention as you move forward.

[@mathesonstep]

I have been thinking of creating my own Linux distro (based off of Debian) for a while now, it wouldn't really be too too custom. I just wanted to make something to make deploying kiosk's easier. I found one distro that does this already but they charge for updates and make it hard to change anything after install. I might be able to make something better at least for my own future use but it would more be like a modified version of Debian like you are describing here. Anyway, I just came across your channel today and am very interested to see where this goes!!!

[@brads2041]

Debian 12 with updated/rolling gnome would make me happy

[@matijacizmar9372]

There is a reason why it isnt..

[@ericcornish1983]

Nice video, I myself would love to do this as well, for me I want an operating system that is good at natively running windows games and yes I know there’s SteamOS but that’s SteamOS, I want do something like your doing with Debian but first and foremost it has to be able to play windows games natively somehow and keep up with the latest graphics drivers from Nvidia and ATI Radeon cards. Can’t wait to see your progress because then I can learn from you 👍🍻 cheers

[@sethbessinger2025]

That’s cool! I would like a Debian base with KDE, but with a website that is easy to navigate!

[@jburchett1990]

RefreshOS is going to start a Debian Edition releasing next year 🤫

[@zparihar]

Spiral Linux KDE

[@anon_y_mousse]

Neat, though I'd love to see you do LFS and turn it into a proper distro. Maybe even write your own package manager from scratch, which would be really awesome.

[@friedrichhayek4862]

5:03 The Open Build Service has the tools to make the ISO.

[@ZeFoxii]

Make a nobara Linux arch alternative, all the improvements glorious egg roll made but more of a RegataOS feel where it’s curated and functional for humans moving from windows but keeping the power and customization of arch.

[@MichaelNROH]

Arch is way too much of an "active" hassle to deal with. Frequent updating is not in the books for me personally

[@aussiemetalmate]

I would love to test it out when it's ready!

[@aloneer0529]

Finally something to watch. Love your videos btw!

[@friedrichhayek4862]

And debian bookworm works out the box with the Open Build Service.

[@Nk-ti4st]

You can use a window manager instead of relying on desktop environments. To truly make your own thing. I think sway and riverwm are good enough for beginners. You just need to learn a new text editor like emacs or vim.

[@MichaelNROH]

Tbh, I tried several Window managers for about two weeks and wanted to make a video about it, but I couldn't get into the workflow personally. That being said, the advantages and productiveness of WMs are insane if you get into them. Just not for me personally (yet)

[@evil_witch]

Why do you need to know a modal text editor to use a WM? I've used VSCode whilst WM-hopping (anr using those proficiently) during, only recently learning Neovim (mostly for Vim motions & keybindings, the editor per se doesn't matter to me)

[@matijacizmar9372]

You def. picked a best base for creating something unique:D debian 12 is a stable beast:D

[@hopelessdecoy]

Until a year and a half from now when everyone is complaining the packages are 2 years old lol The cycle of base Debian love.

[@TheRajeshphadke]

My observation is with distros is lot of theming & personalisation in terms of software choices. What I have observed is easier to access themes eg. Voyager Linux has beautiful theme but not sure what I get more over Debian. Also, repositories for software. Eg. Arco Linux actually bridges that gap for Arch based distros by creating extra & 3rd party repo where it provides softwares natively which others fail. Eg. Warpinator, onlyoffice, freefilesync, vivaldi and that reduces need for flatpaks which need more storage & processing power.

[@DanelonNicolas]

ok. I'm in :) I'll subscribe to see how's this project is going 🙂👍🏻

[@laminathith2530]

One doubt, Fedora also community owned distribution right. If you like fedora why not just base it on fedora.

[@MichaelNROH]

I just prefer Debian tbh. Their open source philosophy, stability approaches and even APT (yes really) + the Logo is better than Fedora's 😜

[@naranyala_dev]

interesting, love your content, expand more

[@TnAhunter]

I was looking for updates on your channel on how you're doing on making your own Linux

[@itsaperfectdork]

Im gonnda build my personalized debian 12 with budgie desktop. Gonna have lightdm, flatpaks, Canonical package manager. it will be a simple basic personlized for my self. Glad this came out I actually dont know how to make an iso for linux. Im glad you picked debian and not arch like every one else. not a fan of Arch BTW. lolz. Cant wait to see your vids on this.

[@zparihar]

Spiral Linux, based on Debian, is the best Debian Distro!

[@Aoitori365]

keep up the good work

[@arthurrock4979]

Bro, I'm telling you, as much terminal as in Windows or MacOS (believe it or not, 96-98% of PC users can't stand the Linux terminal, it's not just me), Wine, Proton, etc out of the box, with the ability to maintain Windows program files directories, and exe software preferences, or at least a troubleshooting GUI replacing the terminal to fix common issues called "Sarah Connor" (SC, for short), cause of the many reasons why that would be the perfect name 😐.

[@nomadhgnis9425]

I have already been busy doing this for a couple of months. I am basing my desktop on mate because it is light and stable. I am designing a custom debian 11 for bible believing christian's. It is intended for offline use. I am almost finished. Go some more tweaks to do. It is based on the king james bible. If you need help them ask. I am using the live build system. I plan to do a build root direct in the future because I can build offline totally without the intetnet.

[@MeraMadness]

I'm using Void Linux because after 5 years of Fedora, I started to hate it because of redhat and everything and also Void is faster

[@xperience-evolution]

OpenSuse has a bigger collection. Not just AUR and Nix.

[@fabricio4794]

if i had to make my own distro Cinammon wine pre installed Games Emulators Roms Proprietary and Free Codecs Steam Pre installed Best Nature Wallapaper ,mountains etc pre installed good games 2 Versios - Weak Pc Gaming Bleeding Edge Pc Gaming

[@ordinaryhuman5645]

The games I've tried to run with Steam have performed noticeably bad with Cinnamon (very visible stuttering). I had to switch to Gnome, even though I'd rather use Cinnamon or KDE (which was unstable for me with Fedora). I do still have Cinnamon installed, and I could see using that for some older games maybe if Gnome is having issues, but since I installed Gnome on my Cinnamon-flavored Debian 12 install, I haven't used Cinnamon once. Have you tried using Bottles? That''s been a bit easier for me to use than Wine. Including ROMs and games with the distro seems like a silly thing to do, even if you ignore some of the legal implications. Leave that kind of customization to the user. For personal use, you can just keep the files installed on a separate drive for easy access. I have a couple of games included on my backup USB, along with minimalist dark-theme-friendly anime waifu wallpapers and other important files.

[@Akshay56633]

Hey I am also running linux on my desktop since last 4 years and I am still not satisfied by any offering out there. I do want to use latest of UI and drivers(prefer latest linux kernel in case). But I do like the rock stable base of Debian. Sounds like what you will be doing is interesting for me and would like to give you a hand if you are open to it.

[@amazingemrys2939]

after society collapses and the digital age is in question the only tech that survives is gameboy and linux skynet the robot apocalypse will linux

[@FriskGamer1]

You compile the Linux kernel, compile BusyBox, slap BusyBox into the Linux kernel and tada, you have a distro!

[@PAFBEAST]

It just sounds easy but it isn't

[@FriskGamer1]

@@PAFBEAST It is, i did it myself

[@PAFBEAST]

@@FriskGamer1 bro then can you guide me about it? Can we make a distro where we just customize the logos etc and add custom tools or softwares and then install on real computer, but linux updates should be automatic so we don't need to have extra headache of managing it, so can we make it by customizing ubuntu or what? I guess ubuntu based will be easier as they will manage everything but we will customize it on our side which won't revert back with their update, is it possible? Also tell resources and main points about what to learn first and from where to start

[@deersakamoto2167]

Love the "pointless forks/distros" discussion happening among Linux-tubers. There's really only 2 broad options ahead: (1) go user-friendly (e.g. Mint) for most people. This is for people -- beginners & seasoned users alike -- who want their OS to get out of their way and use their apps intuitively and get work done, much like using Mac or Windows, OR (2) go community-based upstream (Debian/Arch) for "tinkerers" (a minority of people who finds customization fun and enjoyable)

[@insu_na]

Problem is that the `(1)` users never contribute anything to Linux. If you want all Linux development to be done by IBM and Oracle, I don't know what's wrong with you

[@deersakamoto2167]

@@insu_na For example Mint users are pretty active in forums, doing localization, giving donations etc. These are all positive contributions. I too think having IBM/Oracle (solely) manage Linux dev is a bad idea

[@hopelessdecoy]

​​​@@insu_nayou need both, without devs users don't want to use. Without users devs don't want to waste thier time on things no one wants to use. Also the non-technical people are great community posters, donate money and are free marketing. (like said above) I'm 100% ok with appliance like distros and workstation distros coexisting and you should be too.

[@insu_na]

@@hopelessdecoy I don't care about Mint etc. existing, they can or can't not my business. I oppose the notion however that users of these distros (on average) are contributing anything to linux. Which non-enthusiast have you seen donate to Gentoo, or Arch, or Debian, or Gnome, or KDE? How are they free marketing? They're not likely to recommend Linux to others and if they do, they're not usually technically knowledgeable enough to help the few people whom they do refer to linux with their technical issues. I know plenty of enthusiasts who donate if not money at least code contributions or package maintenance. It's also enthusiasts who make youtube videos and channels talking about Linux and helping people sort their problems out.

[@hopelessdecoy]

@@insu_na I think you underestimate the contributions of the non-technical in general but also remember that they can and if introduced gently into Linux do learn. We all aren't 40+ year old Unix engineers, I'm a 20+ year Windows user who moved to Linux and my Wife is a teacher. Because of Mint when people ask she tells them it's a viable desktop for everyone. Because of Kubuntu/Mint I started a business which prioritizes Linux. Devs are the heart of Linux but users are the blood. Devs love recognition and users and it motivates them to create.

[@fedoraguy5252]

After more then one year of having my motor cycle license i am going to enter MotorGP.

[@l4nc]

Please consider making some Desktop repository to Debian, or scripts like Spiral or Eznix, IMHO that would be more helpful and realistic. Debian Stable, wouldn't have any new DE in backports, partialy MX patching some DE like xfce. hmm also I have read Preining stopped his stable KDE backport so there is empty space.

[@eliasbergmann7356]

Hey man, you talked about creating an iso image, how do you Think you could do that? There are many tool such as *ahem* systemback or others, so what and how will your approach to that be? Could you create a video or a guide on how to make an iso yourself?

[@MichaelNROH]

I'll try out some random ISO builders I find, and if they don't do what I want it to do, then I use them to re-engineer the process.

[@jburchett1990]

This was one of the hardest parts of creating RefreshOS was choosing what to use to build the iso.

[@gleitonfranco1260]

🔝‼

[@tambuchalinux]

MX Linux will allow you to do this much faster. You can literally do it all in a few hours starting from a fresh install. Probably less..

[@KajzerD]

How do you setup DaVinci Resolve to run on Debian with AMD gpu tho? I can't get ROCM Runtime like I do on Fedora and Arch, and I really don't feel like installing AMDGPU PRO drivers

[@MichaelNROH]

I made a video about running DaVinci Resolve with Distrobox. Should work like a charm on Debian

[@KajzerD]

@@MichaelNROH Sounds good!

[@dietwaffles5907]

I shall call it "Debian Horn"

[@alpacamale2909]

Then what makes Zorin a Distro

[@MichaelNROH]

Their GUI implementation, minor kernel and performance tweaks, as well as their own update cycle of applications

[@MRJMXHD]

I just need a Distro that scales graphics properly without hogging almost all the system resources or ending up with blurry text. This is my biggest irk with Linux. Also the file manager never renembers your upload directory. Say for example you are uploading multiple files to a web server, you have to ALWAYS navigate from /home to wherever the file is, instead of Linux just remembering where the last file was fetched. IT SUCKS!!!

[@MichaelNROH]

I think the file picker depends on the main file manager itself, but it can also be caused by browser of application who uses it. There are a ton of custom filepickers, or the browser itself redirects you to home, as their could be simultanious users.

[@MRJMXHD]

​@@MichaelNROHany idea how I could tinker with this? I use Zorin

[@jackelofnar]

Just what the world needs another linux distro why not contribute back to an existing distro and make a real difference.

[@MichaelNROH]

Ähmmmm, you didn't watch the video I guess?

[@SearchFinger]

The distro pollution is already overwhelming.

[@StevieRayLou]

There are over 900 linux distros. Why not make a good one?

[@jburchett1990]

RefreshOS is a good one... Soon to be great!

debian + xfce

[@the100ways6]

Tutorial pls

[@MichaelNROH]

Everything at the right time 😅

[@CreditCard-hi3kt]

You don't have a beard.... I don't trust you

[@PAFBEAST]

Brooo😂😂😂

[@donkey7921]

fedoras repos are bigger than debian.

[@EskardusX]

number 5

[@fabricio4794]

Good Job Pal,Debian Smash Arch incel s cult,Debian 12 is the only fresh stuff that you need,the best Distro Ever..

[@FakeMichau]

Until packages get out of date enough to make games have issues / play worse

[@F1r3l08rd]

Click bate

[@ruukes4770]

Yo @MichaelNr0h what is the name of that app launcher at 6:39

[@MichaelNROH]

It came with a theme. Unfortunately, I already deleted the Virtual Machine. It was top rated, but I can't seem to recall it's name, neither find it right now

[@husanaaulia4717]

Rofi?🤔