This month, I've reviewed the Alpha release of the latest version of Mageia, a distro that was originally forked from the now defunct Mandriva Linux, which ceased operations in 2015. Like many community-driven projects, it thrives thanks to a coordinated volunteer team, showing how collective effort sustains major open source distributions today. Distros are also occasionally developed mostly single-handedly, such as TROMjaro 2026.01.13, whose lead developer refined the latest Unity-style desktop interface by collaborating with a new contributor.

Other distro development teams go to greater lengths to keep the lights on. MODICIA O.S., for instance, began its life as a commercial Linux distribution in 1998, though the project has since released a fully open source Community edition. Mainstream versions of Linux, like Ubuntu, follow an open source model, while maintaining trademark control over terms like the OS name. Major developers like Canonical can also make money by selling support packages for the server editions of the operating systems they develop. Red Hat is one of the best examples of this model, given that it sells subscription packages to the Enterprise version of its operating system, while continuing to be a sponsor for the Fedora Project, which is largely compatible with the paid version of the OS.

None of this undermines the spirit of collaboration that underpins Linux. However, it's worth remembering that even open source programmers need to keep a roof over their heads!

[...]