Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Sun 30th Mar 2003 07:47 UTC
Yes, we all know the "big three" (Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE) commercial distros, we also know the next big bunch of respected traditional/geek distros (Debian and Slackware and some might add Gentoo too in this list), and we know the "other big three" in the desktop Linux area (Lindows, Xandros, Lycoris). However, not everyone knows what is available besides this "threshold". Here is a list of Linux distros that worth knowing about and to keep an eye on! 
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...when they're all very alike.
Come on, let's face it, every linux distribution is just a repackaging of the same software (different versions maybe), together with some minor admin tools that are distro-specific.
Some do have a specific goal, but most of them are just, well, copying what has been done before.
If you make a comparison of the 3 BSD's (or four, if you count OS X too), you'll see that there's far more difference between the systems: they each have a completely different kernel, completely different important system components like a firewall and such.
Each of them has a clear goal: FreeBSD = speed&stability on i386, NetBSD = extreme portability, OpenBSD = security that'll make a paranoid look naive, OS X = userfriendly desktop UI, without sacrificing (much) of the power of UNIX.
I think that's more valuable than 'just another linux distro' which does nothing but confuse people new to *nix.