Open source... I'm not convinced

[metulburr]

I just can't see this model being nearly as good as people think it is. That is, the model of open source, where programmers write it, and then an army of other programmers come along and read all of it, and report anything bad they find in the code.

Mint is "basically" Ubuntu with a different skin. Both are based on Debian. A lot of linux distros are. Someone creates their own linux by grabbing ubuntu (for example), stripping off things they dont like, adding things like a different desktop environment. Then its gets a fanbase for that as a default. Xubuntu, Lubuntu, XFCE, are all ubuntu with a different desktop environments. You could take Ubuntu and install xfce desktop environment and then you have Xubuntu. Except you can switch to which desktop environment you want then. A lot of new linux users dont realize this.

So while they might look like a ton, they are all based off of a small amount. It reminds me of how much church denominations are broken up.

I would agree with ichabod801. I would trust that some are looking over linux rather than what Windows has. You can look over any linux distro code you want (even down to the kernel), you cannot do the same to Windows. Thus why people trustt open sourced code over closed. You have the option to look at it.

If you are really freaked out by using other people's distro's.....you can always make your own with Linux from Scratch. This would teach you how things work to look at code of other distros to find possible bugs/issues. Then you are trusting yourself, not someone else. But i would warn you to not do this first (especially if you have never even used linux).

Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a project that provides you with the steps necessary to build your own custom Linux system. There are a lot of reasons why somebody would want to install an LFS system. The question most people raise is "why go through all the hassle of manually installing a Linux system from scratch when you can just download an existing distribution like Debian or Redhat". That is a valid question which I hope to answer for you. The most important reason for LFS's existence is teaching people how a Linux system works internally. Building an LFS system teaches you about all that makes Linux tick, how things work together, and depend on each other. And most importantly, how to customize it to your own taste and needs.