>a thousand Linux variations that are a nightmare to support on large scale.
So, why not pick -one- major distro (Debian family, Ubuntu say) and support it? win-win. (In everyday use,'thousand' doesn't mean much. 'Handful' is closer to the ground.)
This can be done only if the government enforces the choice, but that is almost impossible: everybody will believe they are special and need something else as an exception. Some will even be justified.
So, why not pick -one- major distro (Debian family, Ubuntu say) and support it? win-win. (In everyday use,'thousand' doesn't mean much. 'Handful' is closer to the ground.)