There’s no doubt that Ubuntu has transformed the Linux landscape since its introduction six years ago. It has modified a few key technologies to ensure generally demanding tasks under Linux, simpler for even early computer users. Although, Ubuntu was a debian-based distro, it is a popular framework for several other distros.

Although you can take a basic Ubuntu source code and make it into almost anything, derivatives are quite popular because they eliminate the need for custom configurations. The huge number of distros testifies to that!

Certainly, there are the official progenies like Kubuntu, but what about other distros? Generally many Ubuntu derivatives are geared towards a specific requirement, but that does not mean that they are less useful.

http://hostwisely.com/blog/four-most-unique-ubuntu-derivatives/