Yes I know that Cuba, the DPRK, and China have their own distros, but they're pretty specific to the language and networks of those countries. I use linux because it's free and open source but I use one of those distros that is privately owned and I'm thinking of upgrading to something that is truly communally owned but also has good compatibility with software, especially scientific software. Any good recs please?
Thanks!
If you want projects that are "communally owned", just avoid Ubuntu, SUSE, and RedHat distributions. Basically all other large distributions have a number of people working on them, and often even projects mostly run by one guy are happy to let others contribute.
Arch, Debian, Linux Mint, or anything recommended by the FSF.