I can see many are confused about Fork and Derivative work. Fork is a software development term. The definition given from wikipedia explains it. Derivative work is a common legal/law term. In software, fork and derivative work essentially means the same/similar idea. When some one takes a piece of music, and modifies it (remix or add instruments), then the produced music is a derivative work of the original music.
Derivative works are used to define license and copyright. Fork is used to define software integration, and practice. That is why, if some company gets sued in a US court over a software fork, the defender will use derivative work to explain the issue not fork. On the other hand, when a software developer talks to another software developer he will use the word fork. So in that way all distros are fork of Linux kernel. Now the question is who is whose derivative work/fork? Essentially Mint is derivative work/fork of both Debian, and Ubuntu; not Knoppix; where Knoppix is derivative/fork of Debian. The relationship goes from right to left in the picture Mahdee Jameel shared. Based on what I have just said, Mint is clearly a fork/derivative work of Ubuntu. There should not be any confusion about this. At the beginning of this thread, some one suggested that Mint is *NOT* fork of Ubuntu, and Mint is a complete distro. Mint is a complete distro; however it is also fork of Ubuntu/Debian. It is possible that Mint in near future can derive directly from Debian; but that does not suggest anything really other than technical differences. By deriving from Ubuntu Mint does not become less important or by deriving from Debian does not make Mint more important. Ubuntu Privacy Remix does not claim it to be a separate distro. If it does, then it should be considered as a separate distro (provided that it meets all the requirements). It is possible to release a distro without any server/update (bad distro though unless the main purpose is served.). Probably the debate was how much effort was given to make the distro. That can be a huge discussion for the complexity of such topic. Now back to the original topic (:-/), I have not used UPR, but it seems like they tried to create a live DVD (too big for a CD) from where you can work in an encrypted and secured (at maximum level) environment. It does not let you connect to insecure network or unexpected network access. The live dvd can not be installed in Hard Disk. In one line, if you are concerned about your privacy, this is the distro you are looking at. Tanjir ~~ tanjir dot net On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 3:17 AM, mahdee.jameel <mahdee.jam...@gmail.com>wrote: > I would not delve into technicalities, but here is a great visualization on > which linux distro is a fork of whom: > > http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Gldt1009.svg > > [Source< > http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/10/31/the-linux-distro-timeline-is-an-extensive-family-tree-of-all-things-linux/ > > > ] > -- > Ubuntu Bangladesh | http://ubuntu-bd.org > Bangla Linux Forum | http://forum.linux.org.bd > > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bd > -- Ubuntu Bangladesh | http://ubuntu-bd.org Bangla Linux Forum | http://forum.linux.org.bd https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bd
