I’ve been using Debian for 20 years now, since Debian 3.1 “Sarge”.

My first distro was Knoppix, and it was incredible that I could run a Linux desktop from a CD without installing it. Back then I had something like 96 MB of RAM and my computer was an already ancient Pentium II. And yet it worked fine. This opened my mind about what a computer can actually achieve so I asked around forums in my country and met a guy who had the installation media for Debian. I only had dial-up so downloading DVDs was impossible.

Installed it and used it non stop since then. I’m running Debian Testing with the Unstable and Stable repositories pinned at a lower priority.

It’s hard to describe but the first time I used Linux it just felt like home. I have used DOS 6.x and Windows since 3.1 but it didn’t feel like I was in control of the computer; in retrospect it felt something like an amusement park instead of the engineering marvel it really was. We take it for granted now and don’t completely realize that we have actual super computers in our pockets!

Debian was the epitome of this, for the first time I could understand and control the entirety of the software and best of all: it is a community effort. Smart people all around the world donate their time and skills to create something to improve humanity. What’s not to love and appreciate?

I’ve been using it on my server for 6 or 8 years, and on my desktop and laptop for maybe a year. I’m not sure when I switched.

I like the stability, I generally don’t need bleeding edge software. And as someone else mentioned, it’s one of the packages distributors always offer.

Are You on stable or testing repo? Do You use flatpaks?

Debian since 1998 checking in

Also have been using Debian for the past 3 years. It just works on all of my machines and comes with just enough features to make life easy. Also love the variety of packages and compatibility with pretty much anything I need that isn’t in the official repo.

Many would beg to differ but I love how stable and predictable it is. I have a very particular taste in UI and the less work to maintain that cozy look, the better. Having been a holdout on old Windows versions in the years before I moved to Linux, getting new features at all is already very exciting. I had thought for several years that nothing would beat the comfort and reliability of Windows 2000, but Debian proved me wrong.

Stable, fully foss and commonly used.

I have been using Debian - it’s the only distro I’ve used in my 3 years of Linux as a daily driver, and I started using it in VMs instead of Ubuntu a while before that.

I also like stability and Debian’s community-oriented nature.

I am currently on Testing for my desktop, but plan to either go stable or do a reinstall when Trixie hits stable - I’m tired of rolling release and my programs changing frequently. I have really enjoyed Debian 12 + Flatpaks on my Thinkpad, so I think I will do that when summer rolls around.

I’m a big fan of a minimal Debian system with Flatpaks.
Technically, Fedora Silverblue would be perfect for me, but I had way more issues with it than with Debian, despite it being immutable and atomic.

I use it on every server I set up. Just configure it once and leave it, it works. I love not having to constantly adapt to changes from package updates, since I rely on Debian’s index, which is updated quickly only in case of critical security issues.

Debian on servers. Mint for my friends’ laptops.

Debian in Qubes for me.

What flag is this, by the way?

I use it because of the lack of BS.

Secondly, it’s stable.

I appreciate their philosophy. I’ve been a Linux user since the early 2000s and have cycled through 30-40 distros at least. I’m not a highly technical user. I would consider myself a solid intermediate. For a daily use system I prefer arch, but my servers run Debian. Most of the people writing install guides for the software I deploy seem to use Debian so I run into less issues this way. It can be hard to follow a guide for Gentoo when you’re using Hanna Montana Linux, know what I’m saying? Same thing with Debian. It’s just a solid choice with the bonus of having a better, more ethical philosophy, and the benefit of being widely adopted and supported by people who can help when you get stuck. I don’t even mind gnome on my servers since it works well with a single screen and it’s super rare that I actually need the server GUI anyway.

I love Debian because it just works, its administration is completely open, and there’s a lot of software support.

I used to like Ubuntu LTS because it was just Debian that wasn’t quite as out of date, but more recent installs seem to suggest that you only get all the patches if you subscribe to their paid service? Not sure what the fine print is on that.

This box was turned on, Nextcloud installed, and never touched since (side from apt updates).

06:49:18 up 2081 days, 22:07,  1 user,  load average: 0.21, 0.33, 0.42