Distrowatch - a popular web application showcasing different GNU/Linux and BSD distributions along with their release information, package list, reviews, screenshots, and other information - reaches one major mile stone in it's history. On 31st of May 2016 distrowatch will be 15 year old.
15 years back, distrowatch was started as a small website showcasing basic information of 5 GNU/Linux distributions. Over the years it has grown to have 815 open source operating systems in it's database of which 279 are actively developed. Within these 15 years distrowatch has made 4926 stable and 2855 development release announcements in it's front page.
15 years back, distrowatch was started as a small website showcasing basic information of 5 GNU/Linux distributions. Over the years it has grown to have 815 open source operating systems in it's database of which 279 are actively developed. Within these 15 years distrowatch has made 4926 stable and 2855 development release announcements in it's front page.
Where do we go from here? Well, we have been adding new features and resources lately, trying to make the information we have more accessible. For instance, we have added a page that links people to hardware that works with Linux and the BSDs. This year we also added a glossary and a frequently asked questions page (both of which are still growing). Earlier this year we set up our Headlines page where we post distribution news and upstream package releases. DistroWatch now supports secure HTTPS connections and we have been optimizing our page load times. We are in the process of organizing our waiting list to make it easier for us to evaluate and cover new projects faster. We hope to have IPv6 support enabled later this year and we plan to make it easier to find distributions which offer popular features such as UEFI support. Searching for specific versions of packages will also be improving in the coming months.For more information and statistics, see original news published in distrowatch weekly.