Zynot

Zynot is a Linux distribution built on a Fork (software development) of Gentoo Linux.

=Beginnings=

Zynot started in 2003 when software engineer and Gentoo developer Zachary Welch registered the non-profit organization, The Zynot Foundation and sent an email to the Gentoo-dev mailing list [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/9598 stating his intentions] for Zynot.

=Controversy=

Inside his email contained a link to a page on the Zynot s website where explained not only his [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/9598 reasons for leaving Gentoo] but also for starting Zynot.

Although outwardly everything seemed fine but within Gentoo, Zynot was highly contentious. At that time Daniel Robbins, Gentoo s Chief Architect, sent an email replying to Zachary Welch s stating that he found some parts of the page relating to Zynot s fork [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/9606 littered with lies, and slanderous].

=The Distribution=

Zynot currently uses Gentoo s python (programming language) based package manager but they are developing Perl and C programming language/C plus plus versions.

=The Future=

Because its infancy it is difficult to tell how popular Zynot will become. Certainly they don t suffer from the large scale responsibilities that Gentoo does but because of its size it also hasn t built up the community driven edge that drives Gentoo Linux.

In fact, Zynot appears rather dormant at the moment. Its website has become unavailable, and as of late 2005, it looks to all intents and purposes as if Zynot was stillborn.