A few years ago I made a city in Cities Skylines inspired by Linux distributions. There is the main, free island with (mostly) desktop Linux distributions and the smaller, crowded, and restrictive Android island with various Android ROMs. I’ve probably put over 200 hours into this city in the game. This is a long post, so buckle up.

There are ~90-95 districts in the city, each representing a distro or at least a specific desktop environment. Each district has a 2-digit code, with the first digit having a theme:

• 0x, 1x: Ubuntu and its direct derivatives
• 2x: Ubuntu derivatives, but with some “distance” from Canonical (Linux Mint, ElementaryOS), plus some miscellaneous distros
• 3x: Debian and its non-Ubuntu derivatives
• 4x: Fedora and its derivatives
• 5x: Arch and its derivatives (including SteamOS)
• 6x: Miscellaneous and lightweight distros (Slackware, OpenSUSE, Tiny Core, etc.)
• 7x: “Googled” Android ROMs
• 8x: Degoogled Android ROMs (half of them are probably dead, due to laws from the other parts of the island)
• 9x: “Advanced” Linux distros (ex. Kali, Alpine, NixOS, Gentoo, etc.)

Exceptions to the my first digit rule:

• 27: ChromeOS
• 69: Hannah Montana Linux
• 76: PopOS

There are some other general rules for districts in the city:

• Any major money-making distro corresponds to an industrial district (ex. RHEL, Ubuntu IoT, etc.)
• Districts near the coast correspond to more noob-friendly distros, and districts in the inner mountain regions correspond to more advanced distros.
• Dense districts correspond to distros used by many people, and this pattern continues to exurban or even rural districts.
• In general, the better the distro is, the more “desirable” its corresponding distict is to live in.

Yes, I purposely designed the Ubuntu district to be shaped like the Ubuntu logo and I think it’s beautiful.

How to get around the city? There is lots of public transit, and highways for cars.

Let’s start with the roads, because I named most of them. Small roads will be bullet-pointed, while large roads will have a picture with the name.

• North-South streets are numbered, from 1st Street (by the GeForce RTX Cliffs Park) to 95th Street (in SteamOS and on Atomic Island). This holds true on Android island.
• East-West roads are named based on the North-South position relative to the center of Ubuntu:
• South of the center of Ubuntu, they are named after the first word of the Ubuntu releases (from Edgy Eft to Noble Numbat)
• North of the center of Ubuntu on Linux island, they are named after the second word of the Ubuntu releases (from Edgy Eft to Kinetic Kudu).
• East-West roads on Android island are named after the Android desserts (from the made up Apple (lol) Street, to Tiramisu Street).
• There are some exceptions, especially in the center of larger districts. Send a reply if you have any questions about a particular road!

Here are pictures of each part of the city:

Ubuntu vicinity:

NE Linux Island:

SE Linux Island:

SW Linux Island:

NW Linux Island:

Android Island:

View from “Ubuntu Overlook”:

Arch btw Park:

(I’m not even an Arch user but I think this is funny)

The backbone of the public transit are the train lines, named after the Big 4 motorcycle manufacturers (I’m into motorcycles lol) arranged similar topographically to a peace sign:

• Honda loop: Ubuntu, Debian, Raspbian, Linux Mint, PopOS
• Suzuki loop: Ubuntu, Debian, OpenSUSE, Fedora/Nobara, Manjaro, SteamOS
• Kawasaki loop: PopOS, Linux Mint, Raspbian, OpenSUSE, Fedora/Nobara, Manjaro, SteamOS, Stock Android, Airport
• Yamaha line (not loop): Debian, Ubuntu, Airport, Stock Android

Additionally, there are many bus lines, with the long-range ones named after Sheet Music Boss’s RUSH songs. Note that the districts I mention are not the only stops, but just give a rundown of where the lines go.

• RUSH A: Ubuntu-AntiX-Arch-Manjaro-Bazzite
• RUSH B: KDE Neon-Kubuntu-Ubuntu-PopOS-Zorin-Linux Mint-ElementaryOS
• RUSH C: Airport-Ubuntu Kylin-Ubuntu-Xubuntu-Linux Mint-ElementaryOS
• RUSH C#: Ubuntu-Ubuntu Budgie-Deepin-MX Linux-Raspbian
• RUSH D: ChromeOS-Slackware-Lubuntu-Debian-Raspbian
• RUSH Eb: SteamOS-EndeavorOS-Arco-Arch-OpenSUSE-Kali
• RUSH E: SteamOS-Manjaro-Bazzite-Silverblue-Fedora
• RUSH F: Linux Mint-Debian-OpenSUSE-Rocky-CentOS-Fedora-Silverblue
• RUSH G: Airport-KDE Neon-Slackware-ChromeOS-Parabola-Northern and central SteamOS
• RUSH PIGGIES: Ubuntu-Ubuntu MATE-Debian-Raspbian-Kali-OpenSUSE-RHEL-Fedora
• RUSH ASTRONOMIA: Hannah Montana-Kubuntu-Lubuntu-Peppermint-Solus-Linux Mint-ElementaryOS
• RUSH ANKHA: ChromeOS-Slackware-Ubuntu-Xubuntu-Linux Lite-Linux Mint
• RUSH SKELETONS: ChromeOS-Gentoo-Puppy-Void-Arch-CentOS-Nobara-Fedora
• RUSH AREA 51: Slax-Slackware-ChromeOS-Garuda-EndeavorOS-Nobara-Fedora

Please note that some parts, especially on the west side, are still undeveloped as I have to wait for more residential demand.

Ironically, this city was fully made in Windows.