The solution has its origin in the original marketing statement: ``Of course it will work, it's just Linux''. In theory, underneath all of the value add and differentiation, the essence of the operating system (the kernel, the libraries and the core applications) is effectively all from the same source. Therefore, we theorised, it should be possible to separate our product into two pieces, one large piece which is independent of the distribution (called the core) and a much smaller one containing the distribution dependent components. Then, to support a new distribution, we would be able to produce a new distribution dependent component and deliver it along with our unaltered core package. Because the core and all of the other distribution dependent components are unchanged, to release on a new distribution we would only need to develop the distribution dependent component and then QA the whole thing on the one new distribution.