There is Debian and the spin-off in Ubuntu, Mepis, Knoppix, Linspire and Xandros. Why aren't there more end user distributions based on Gentoo, Slackware, Suse and Red Hat (which has Fedora, but it's more or less from the same club)?

I'm not talking about Damn Small Linux or other small projects. I really mean full-metal-jacket distributions.

Because most Slackware & Gentoo users believe they've already got the best possible distro

(Can't speak for the other two, haven't been a part of those communities)

+1

I think there are in fact a lot of offshoots of Red Hat. You could even consider Mandrake and Suse offshoots of Red Hat, I think. However, they aren't bound by a coherent package management strategy because Red Hat essentially never had a coherent package management strategy.

Debian, has always been a "Free" distribution, with a coherent centralized package management strategy that invited expansion and enhancement. Its unique 3 tiered software testing strategy (stable, testing, unstable) has allowed it to be suitable for a wide variety of end user purposes. Server oriented distributions could use Debian Stable as a base. Desktop oriented distributions could use Debian Testing and/or Unstable as a base. Debian's package management strategy makes it inviting to build a base upon, and it's so good that it keeps Debian offshoots from falling too far from the tree. (Ubuntu is notably the exception.)

Furthermore, Debian has always invited community and commercial expansions and enhancements. It doesn't attempt to provide end-all-be-all solutions for everyone like Red Hat or other commercial distributions. Anyone could base their product on a Debian base without fear of Debian pulling the rug out from them or directly competing with their own product.

Slackware is old and free, like Debian, but it doesn't offer the compelling suite of packages.

Gentoo has a lot of software packages, but it's one-size-fits-all single tiered software repository is like being forced to use Debian Unstable or nothing at all.

To sum up--Debian's killer app is its unique package management strategy. At the same time, its core philosophy encourages others to use it and expand upon it.

First of all, Damn Small Linux itself is actually Debian-based.
And there are distros based off of Fedora (Berry Linux and Blag Linux, for example).
The reason Slackware and Gentoo don't have many -based distros is that Gentoo and Slackware you have to build from the ground up to be exactly tailored for your computer. Debian, you can do that, too, but I've found Debian to be a bit more guided and automatic. And a lot of the distros you mentioned that are Debian-based (Xandros, Mepis, Ubuntu) are also guided and automatic (to a further extent, of course).

IsaacKuo> sounds reasonable, thx I was wondering if I missed something. I was writing an article on distributions for beginners and the name Debian kept coming back again and again. Going through the distro's at Distrowatch didn't clarify much.

aysiu > I know DSL is Debian based, but did you notice the term "Small" in the name (Berry Linux and Blag Linux??? I'm all for Free, but sometimes I wonder if there are too many distro's)

Actually Berry and Blag are two of my favorites, even though they're Fedora-based (I'm more of a Debian person myself). Berry rivals Knoppix in many respects, and Blag seems to have the best of Fedora and Debian rolled into one (Blag has Apt and Anaconda).

Check out http://www.linux.org/dist/index.html they have the option to do a search of a Whole bunch of distros by what their based on (Slackware, Debian, Fedora, RH, and Mandrake).

I don't know if Suse really allowed other distros based off of it since it was a more commercial distribution, but now that they have the OpenSUSE project I wouldn't be surprised if we see a few of them spring up.

As for my take on the reasoning behind the lack of distros based of Slackware and Gentoo:

Slackware is so minimalistic that there's probably not much need for other spin offs, they would just end up being very similar to Slackware. (Plus, most new distros have an advanced package management system and while Slackware did invent packages, they haven't really changed for the past 10 years or so)

Similar things apply to Gentoo in that most spin offs would just be the same as Gentoo. One of Gentoo's main goals is customization. Gentoo's base distribution is pretty much a compiler and portage (package management), everything else is set up by the user. With something like Debian you will get a desktop oriented spin off (Ubuntu) that comes with bunches of config tools and stuff, then you'll get a KDE based spin of of Ubuntu (kubuntu) with the KDE environment. With Gentoo and many others all that stuff is optional, if I want to use KDE instead of gnome I just install it instead of switching to a different distribution.

( oh, and we've already got the best possible distro :-P )