Anybody that states that every Link is different clearly doesn't know their Legend of Zelda.
However, there are quite a number of them.
By what I understand, it seems the timeline goes as follows. Whenever you see a group of games together in bold/unbold, those ones have the same Link.
Timeline A:
Minish Cap > Ocarina of Time > Majora's Mask > Link's Awakening > The Legend of Zelda > The Adventure of Link > Four Swords Adventures > A Link to the Past > Oracle of Ages/Seasons
Timeline B:
Minish Cap > Ocarine of Time > Twilight Princess > The Wind Waker > Phantom Hourglass > Oracle of Ages/Seasons
Four-Swords Adventures is italicized because there's no evidence to tell if it's the same Link or not as the previous games. A Link to the Past is a ways down the road, however, as Hyrule has recovered from the events of the previous games and the story about Ganon being sealed away has become legend.
If you pay close enough attention to the games, this is a sound interpretation. I've played every single one numerous times, so I can assure you - this is pretty accurate. Of course, Nintendo hasn't stated a canonical timeline, but they have stated that Ocarina of Time was the first... before Minish Cap came out. Minish Cap pretty much makes it clear that it's definitely before Ocarina of Time. Then, if you connect the events in each game from there (every game makes obvious connections, some more obvious than others), you can make this assumption with little doubt.
You won't find a better timeline than the one above.
SW-5120-1900-6153
