I recently ran across SpiralLinux - GitHub page, and found the concept of how the maintainer is packaging it very cool.
The maintainer has been maintaining Gecko Linux for a while now - it has the same underlying concept.
The gist is - you're basically installing Debian, but with customizations that the maintainer(s) thought would be very helpful. Basically - better out of the box experience for new users, but also less work to do even for experienced users, and it comes with different download flavors - Gnome, Plasma, XFCE, Mate, etc.
Bit more detail by the maintainer in this Reddit comment:
Exactly. It's like I went over to your house and installed and configured Debian on your computer, and then you kicked me out of your house as soon as I finished. ;-) The installed system no longer has any connection whatsoever with me or the SpiralLinux project, which is good because you wouldn't want your entire system to depend on a random single developer maintaining it.
(original Reddit comment has more details).
I thought this was pretty cool. I'm still trying to read up online on trying to find how the package lists are maintained, etc., and I might be interested in contributing if I'm able to in the future.
Just wanted to share!
Cool concept. I really appreciate the "independence" from the project after the installation. It would be cool, if the author preconfigured some less common DE/WM alongside the ones they package now. I yearn for a distro with a preconfigured tiling WM, so I wouldn't have to use my half broken i3wm setup.
Hi there, SpiralLinux creator here. I'm not opposed to adding more desktop environments as long as they are packaged for Debian, since the SpiralLinux project does not create or modify any packages. But I do try to make all the editions viable for "regular" people, so things like tiling window managers are probably outside of the scope of the project.
Anyway, I'm just spitballing. Good luck with your project!
Thanks for the kind words! Glad you like the project.