@Seamus >_< Please have a look at this:

Yeah, I got it... But that's not to say I agree with it. There are some unique things about RPi OS that set it apart; the device tree is an example. I'm sure other distros have device trees, but I know of none that have invested in the quality & quantity of "overlays". And some of the tools are unique also. I've read that it's possible to install ArchLinux on RPi (for example); I love ArchLinux, but don't think there's a great deal of "common ground".

But all of that falls under "Just My Opinion, Man" - so yeah, I'll refrain from bringing my opinion on this matter into comments.

@Seamus I don't disagree in that sense. I used to mess around so I could use Fedora, I'd compile my own kernel from the Foundation sources, etc., and after a while I realized it was pretty pointless. Sure, I'd get a bit miffed because the current Debian version of gcc didn't have the C++11 support I wanted etc., but the consequences of that stuff didn't really merit the effort it took to get it by using a different distro. And the foundation has done a great job with software support in

the form of maintaining a real, reasonably up-to-date linux distro. I think that has been a big reason their competition in the form of various fruit based boards did not catch up with them. I got an Asus Tinkerboard when they came out and at the time it was a better board than any Pi -- and it mimicked their footprint and GPIO schema, meaning it wasn't that hard to write gizmo software that ran on both. But they never, as far as I am aware, updated the debian derived OS they released.

I finally shelved it last year, still worked perfectly -- on a 4.14 kernel or something. And support was never mainstreamed into the kernel source proper, so you couldn't update it yourself. One of the consequences of that was the community around it also dried up; maybe they have more of a user base in Taiwanese or something but if you go look at the reddit page now it is just people dropping in every few months to observe how this just totally sucks.

However, on the plus side of kids wanting to experiment with different distros on the Pi, I think this also breaths some life into the whole thing because that is the nature of diversity -- and the fundamental premise of capitalism, of course; one of the things our economic system gets hamstrung by is the gradual concentration into monopolies, etc.

A lot of new pi users are also new Linux users, sometimes perhaps people who learned to hate it at some point but are stuck with it ("If you want to use the little computer..."). Either way, I think people coming from a more or less monolithic lifetime experience of MS Windows have a hard time grokking the linux ecosystem and how therein is an explanation/justification for a lot of the things they gripe about. Experimenting with different distros is I think a doorway into that, so, again,

it's a net positive influence on the community. Do people the people involved end up in pointless wastes of time? Sure, but: While there are some straightforward practical uses for a Pi that can be made to work consumer friendly out-of-the box without too much technical deep diving (eg., Kodi was very popular once upon a time), really a very high percentage, probably the majority, of the user base are there with fiddling as a significant motivation :)

I'm sure a lot of them go down whatever road and eventually come (back) to the official OS older but wiser.

@goldilocks: Yes - I agree with all of what you said. It's just that I (personally) don't think there's much chance of getting a question on an obscure version of Linux answered on Raspberry PI SE. Personally - I think there chances are much better on U&L SE. But once again - I understand the "rules of the game"; the "help center" decides these things. So I'll simply remain silent when such questions enter my field of view.