(Near) conformal technicolor: What is really new

The knowledge of the phase diagram of strongly coupled theories as function of the number of colors, flavors and matter representation plays a fundamental role when constructing viable extensions of the standard model (SM) featuring dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. Here I summarize the state-of-the-art of the phase diagram for SU(N) gauge theories with fermionic matter transforming according to arbitrary representations of the underlying gauge group. I critically report on the latest results from first principle lattice simulations and then review the principal models of (near) conformal technicolor such as (Next) Minimal Walking Technicolor (MWT) and Partially Gauged Technicolor (PGT). I finally show that the incarnation of the conformal technicolor model is nothing but the simplest PGT model.