websirnik

I fairy savvy in technology, but I've never fully understood this. After reading on HN about new releases of ReactOS and MenuetOS, I had a look at the list of Linux distributions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions . There are lots, I'm sure it's not a complete list and I believe there are many which are not Linux-forks.

A few noobie questions on the topic:

- What are the reasons people decide to start a new OS development project? (assume they are not backed by Google, Mozilla or other big organisation who can build commercial products with it)

- Why to maintain your own open source OS, and not to adapt or contribute to an existing OS?

- Who is behind these non-mainstream open-source OS? - What is the end goal of having your own open-source OS?