distro

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪstɹəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪstɹoʊ/
• Rhymes: -ɪstɹəʊ

Etymology 1

Shortened form of distribution, +‎ -o.

Noun

distro (countable and uncountable, plural distros)

1. (Internet, software, countable) A set of software components, often open source, that have been packaged into a larger product or component for distribution to end-users.
2. (Internet slang, uncountable) The propagation of warez by distributing it to various sites.
   • 1998, “Bubba Zenetti”, in Need Good FTP sites....Distro's and non-ratio sites-Please.:

     If anyone can help me with obtaining a source with an updated ftp list, either distro sites or non ratio sites, please contact me on ICQ […]

3. The act of distributing printed material such as magazines or newspapers.
   • 2004, Anthony Rayson, “South Chicago ABC Zine distro”, in Fifth Estate‎^[1], volume 364:

     I started writing my own zine, Thought Bombs, and organized a distro of other good, anarchist, anti-racist/abolitionist and feminist zines.

Derived terms

• distro-hopping

See also

• software package

Etymology 2

Shortened form of distributor, +‎ -o.

Noun

distro (plural distros)

1. (slang) A mid-level drug dealer; A distributor.
   • 2019 October 7, Courtney A. Kemp, Theo Travers, Andre J. Ferguson, 21:00 from the start, in Power(Like Father, Like Son), season 6, episode 7 (TV series), spoken by Jason Micic (Mike Dopud):

     JASON: Hey Tommy, get over here! TOMMY (played by Joseph Sikora): I was just loading up my shipment, what’s up?. JASON: There’s someone I want you to meet. My guy right here, one of my highest earning distros in New York City, Tommy Egan. Tommy, Rodolfo Ramirez.

2. An organization that distributes printed material such as magazines or newspapers.
   • 2025 April 30, Dan Sinker, Things Fall Apart: Punk Planet, Year 12‎^[2]:

     I went on to explain that we would continue to work with Mordam—who had recently merged with another indie distributor, Lumberjack, to become a much larger distro—for record store distribution but that "now we get the best of both worlds: the best music distributor in the country getting Punk Planet into record stores and the best newsstand distro getting us onto magazine racks."

Translations

set of software components

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 发行版 (fāxíngbǎn)

• Dutch: distro m
• Esperanto: distribuaĵo, distro
• Finnish: jakelu (fi), jakelupaketti, distro
• French: distrib (fr) f, distro (fr) f, distri (fr) f
• Marathi: डिस्ट्रो m (ḍisṭro)
• Persian: توزیع (fa) (towzi')
• Turkish: dağıtım (tr)
• Ukrainian: дистрибути́в m (dystrybutýv), ди́стро (dýstro)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English distro.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪstroː/
• Hyphenation: dis‧tro

Noun

distro m (plural distro's, diminutive distrootje n)

1. distro, especially an open-source distribution, often of Linux

Indonesian

Etymology

Internationalism.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈdistro/ [ˈdis.t̪ro]
• Rhymes: -istro
• Syllabification: dis‧tro

Noun

distro (plural distro-distro)

1. distro
2. (fashion) distribution outlet: a business that buys goods from a distributor and sells them to others

Further reading

• “distro”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016