Let’s start with some history. Funtoo Linux is a distribution derived from Gentoo, designed to emphasize performance, flexibility, and advanced configuration capabilities.
Daniel Robbins, the original founder of Gentoo Linux, created it in 2008 after stepping down from his position at Gentoo due to differing views with the Gentoo Foundation.
As expected, the distro maintains a close relationship with Gentoo, sharing many of the same principles and architectural designs. However, it diverges in key aspects, such as the bootstrapping and Portage system, profiles system, core tree updates mechanism, etc.
A few hours ago, Daniel Robbins posted a surprising message in the Announcement section of the official Funtoo forum titled “All Good Things Must Come to an Endโฆ”
“All good things must come to an end. I’ve decided to end the Funtoo Linux project. Funtoo started as a philosophy to create a fun community of contributors building something great together. For me, it’s no longer that so I need to move on to other things. There is not a successor BDFL for Funtoo nor am I interested in trying to find one, or hand the project off to someone else. You can expect the project to wind down through August. If you have a Funtoo container, it will continue to be online through the end of August so you have time to find another hosting solution if you need one.”
What should this mean? Obviously, the project has lost its original purpose and no longer motivates Daniel to keep working on it. Moreover, he doesn’t plan to pass on his BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life) leadership role to anyone else. As a result, Funtoo Linux is likely to be discontinued as soon as August.
Well, that was surprising! It’s worth noting that even after sixteen years, Funtoo never managed to attract a wider user base and form a solid community. Moreover, it’s often been overshadowed by Gentoo. Despite this, however, Funtoo has always been a great choice for more experienced Linux users, offering plenty of learning opportunities.
Lastly, we find it a bit strange that such important news isn’t highlighted on the project’s main page but buried in a forum post. However, we wonโt jump to conclusions and will wait for more information over the next few days. As always, weโll quickly update you on any new developments.
