Hello, after doing linux for 2 years, I have thought about developing my own console OS like SteamOS. I cannot find any guides to do this though. Can somebody tell me how much I need to understand of debian to make a fork? Do I have to understand the entire codebase to make something similar to SteamOS? Thanks for any responses.

Well SteamOS is already a Debian-based distro similar to SteamOS.

Based upon your post, the current answer to what it takes is along the lines of "more experience than you have and more effort than you appear willing to make".

What's the motivation behind this question? What problem do you hope to solve through creating your own console OS?

I don't want to solve any problem, I just want to learn more about Linux, and I thought this would be an educational project. My parents are experienced in C and Assembly language, so I could use their help.

Learn some C and Assembly then, putting together a distribution is hard work. Get onto the Debian development mailing list(s) or read them on the web if there and see the issues discussed, they are in soft freeze right now the beginnings of the next release is imminent. You will get to see it all unfold, it is better than any explanation can do, live it with them, politely asked questions have good chance of being answered too.

Edit: Now I think the public IRC channels a gold mine for it as well, real time communication.

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In which case the "problem" is you don't know enough about Linux and you want a project to help you learn.

I agree with HappyTux here - getting involved with the development of Debian itself is likely a good place to start - you're not trying to eat an entire mountain, but it will still be useful knowledge/experience for potentially creating your own flavour and/or derivative later.


That's good, you should definitely ask their advice on the subject - they can (hopefully) give more targetted advice than random people on the net.

The problem is, they don't know much about linux. Also, how will I contribute to debian?

thanks