Last week, I noticed a few stories online about the bizarre path that CentOS--a popular Linux distribution--had taken in the past year. It seems that the project's primary administrator, Lance Davis, went AWOL in 2008, and wouldn't even answer e-mails. This created huge problems for the continuing development of CentOS, because Davis was in charge of the project's domain, allegedly oversaw PayPal accounts with contributions targeted at CentOS, and more. Now, Davis has reappeared, but there are some good lessons to be learned from his odyssey. 

Since the dawn of the distribution, there have been ways to remaster, re-spin, and otherwise rework a Linux flavor into something slightly different -- something that could be replicated and installed across multiple machines. These remastering tools are usually distribution specific (I first tried my hand with this several years back with Knoppix and the Debian live-magic live image creator) and vary in how forgiving (and permissive) they are when new users get too enthusiastic in choosing packages to add and remove.

TechRadar recently featured InstaLinux, a web interface utilizing the Linux Common Operating Environment (LinuxCOE) SystemDesigner. This application allows for the creation of network and media (including USB) installation images using a number of "core" Linux distributions as a base.