I agree with both of you--that is why I am bringing it up here. All these
distros that, at the end of the day, are nothing more than cosmetic
differences(functionally, they all do the same things)...are the biggest
problem with the adoption/growth of linux.
Imagine if the developers half of the 318 active distros(according to
distrowatch) all refocused on community run distro and solely worked on
features and bug-fixing alone! That distro would fly up the ranks in no time
because it's growth would be stupendous!
I also agree that accepting free software is also vitally important. I was
going to go with OpenBSD, but I didn't have the time to learn how to start
from scratch what with school and all. So I tried Trisquel and love it!
Looking at HaikuOS and AROS--it's confirmation that it is possible to create
a lightweight, fully functional desktop that could take on the bloated ones
that exist now. I love how tight this distro feels. If more devs could be
pulled in, and attention focused on one desktop, imagine what this could
become!
I respect Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE and Mint for what they have done, but it
sometimes feels like they aren't as efficient as they could be with their
resources. Maybe it's just because I don't see behind the scenes.
