I have an old notebook which I’ve been toying with a few smaller distros on (typically easy to install, liveCD types), and while I enjoy the tinkering aspects of this, I had a thought that I’ve been mulling.
In the past I’ve run distributions based on larger, better supported, systems (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, etc.) and if or when they have folded, like crunchbang did, or PeppermintOS (however briefly), I just changed them out.
However, if I were to go back to peppermintOS, say, would it be feasible to ‘convert’ the system to the parent distribution? So, could I force peppermintOS to ‘become’ Debian, for example? Or is this overly simplistic? It’s a level of engagement with my operating systems that I just haven’t had!
check the distro’s changelist to find something like that since not all downstream distros are the same; some are more modified than others from their base.