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So I was researching different distros, and I stumbled upon one called Poseidon (based on Ubuntu) which was intended primarily for scientific modeling. However, it hasn't been active since 2018; also, after Poseidon 4, they shifted to focus primarily on oceanography.

So my question is, firstly, is there an active distro that has a similar intended purpose, and comes with all the relevant software? Barring that, is it easy enough to replicate just by downloading the relevant packages?

If the answer to both is no, my question is, how could one best go about resurrecting it as a fork? Would it be better to start from either Poseidon 9 (the latest) or Poseidon 4 (before they shifted direction), and then try to update all the core components? Or to start with the latest Ubuntu (or better yet Debian), and then simply install all the software needed to make it functionally identical to Poseidon?

Bonus question: if you start with an OS, and gradually replace one component at a time until all components have been replaced, is it still the same OS? (Theseus was a son of Poseidon, but unfortunately the name is already taken)

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[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

What made this distro distinctive, and for what features?

[-] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

For academic and scientific use. Based on Ubuntu, but enhanced by GIS/maps, numerical modelling, 2D/3D/4D visualization, statistics, tools for creating simple and complex graphics, programming languages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions

Seems useful, but if it can be replicated simply with analogous software then that's likely the best option

[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Pretty sure it's just a software selection thing. You can build this very easily on your own now, but I would skip Ubuntu at this time for various.

Fedora is probably the easier to build custom distro images with. Checkout osbuilder, blue-build, or the Fedora docs.

this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
41 points (97.7% liked)

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