amunix

I like Debian for the rock solid stability of the applications. I am yet to hit a segfault and a resultant core dump on any of its apps. It helps especially when I am doing monetary transactions over the net - never ever has Opera blown on my face.

The Debian release cycles are long (Debian releases when it is time), so if you run the "stable" release, you might have very old apps. Other Linux distros', make a release every now and then - without much thinking about the app stability. IMHO, the latest-and-greatest app, and all its eye candy is futile, if it is not stable. In the open source world, you can't guarantee stability of any app on Linux, simply because you don't make them - you merely integrate them. So Debian does a thorough testing of the apps too, and hence the longer release cycles.

If you come from the Red Hat world, Debian is a bit difficult to install though - you need to have lot of details about the hardware. But once you are up and running on Debian, there is no looking back. Oh, and its package management system apt, beats the sh** of other package management systems.

If you wish to have rock solid stability, but are okay with a bit out-of-date (depends on how you look at it, really) apps., then Debian is for you. I run Debian on my Dell Latitude D400, and am pretty happy with it. I am now eagerly waiting for the next "stable" release - Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 - which is just round the corner! :-)