It is rock solid stable, that's it in a nutshell. It also doesn't have alot of bloat that other mroe well known distros (Ubuntu, Mint) have. Run Ubuntu, Mint, and Debian on the same machine and I can almost guarantee you will use less RAM with Debian Stable than you will with Ubuntu and Mint.

Debian Squeeze (current stable release) Debian goes through a very thorough amount of testing and patching before a package is deemed stable. This period of time can be a good amount of time. You get well tested and patched software for that rock solid base, but the software does become out dated. I like Debian stable. Wheezy, (current testing) is frozen which means most of the package versions have been chosen for the next stable and they're just doing final touches preparing for the next stable, which will be released in approximately six months (no guarantee). I am using Wheezy at the moment and plan on using it through stable too. I am already finding it more stable than previously used Opensuse 12.1.
point is, with Debian you get that stability, but loose out on newer packages. This is why a lot of people don't use the stable release or even Debian at all, but i see the stable distribution as Debians greatest strength. I am not a package builder or a developer, but i'd imagine it would be a lot easier to bring the latest and greatest packages then it would be to provide a constant stable user experience.

There is a thing called backports you know. There is no need to forgo newer packages if you dont want to, especially if you are already used to Debian testing. When Wheezy becomes stable just add backports and off you go with newer software.

yea there is backports and if your a little more adventures you could even use the mepis repos. some packages would be very hard to backport; the newest gimp for example because it depends on a much newer gtk which would affect every other package that requires gtk.

I've come to a few conclusions.

Distros I don't want to run:

• Mint
• Any *buntu
• Fedora
• Arch, or any other distros which offers a buttload of self-customization.
• PCLinuxOS
• SuSE
• Slackware
• Crunchbang
• Bodhi
• Any not-so-known distro

Distros I'll consider:

• Debian
• Debian testing (?)
• placeholder
• placeholder
• placeholder
• placeholder
• placeholder

A plus is if the distro is kept up-to-date every once in a while. I don't like Gnome 3, Enlightenment WM, KDE, Unity, MATE DE's. I kind of like Xfce and openbox. I haven't tried other DE's or WM's, at least not what I can remember. I think it's nice to every once in a while use a WM completely without a DE while other times I prefer both to have a DE and WM. I prefer a stable distro, and I'd love an absolutely rock solid stable distro, but the "updated once in a while" makes Debian fall short. Things marked with a question mark are still a little iffy. I generally don't like an experimental computer OS, though I wouldn't mind running an experim.ental (nightly) android ROM on my phone. I prefer the .deb way, but .rpm can be acceptable. I do not really like bloat, I like a clean look (less is more).

Fedora: Bored with it. Also a tad too many security warnings here and there.
*buntu: Too much bloat. I don't like KDE or LXDE, so Kubuntu and Lubuntu are immediately out.
Mint: Nice distro with codecs and drivers, but too much bloat.
Slack: Didn't like it.
Arch: Took me 2 days to realize I didn't have a static IP. Once I got network going, an assload of other errors started showing. I'm far too noob for Arch, and it's too barebone for me.
Crunch: Didn't like it.
PCLOS: Feels too Windowsy for me. Also, got tired of it after a few days.
SuSE: Makes me feel retarded, and I'm the noob.
Bodhi: Just.. bleh.
Any other not-so-known distro: I seriously couldn't bother. If I need help, It's sure as hell it's gonna be a pain in the rear getting it if not many use them.

There's nothing to stop you installing a stable Debian and then simply not updating it. This isn't Windows. Updates won't be forced on you without your say so.

Not fixing security holes would be a bad idea. I wouldn't recommend that.

I have went to these websites and done some reading that helped me to understand more about this distribution.
If you have time they may help you to come to your own ideas and interpretations.

http://www.debian.org/

http://www.debian.org/intro/about

http://forums.debian.net/viewforum.p...f37c7d2750e575

You may even find more answers to your questions at The Linux Foundation website. www.linuxfoundation.org
I have had e-mail experience with the Director of Communications at the Linux Foundation and she is the one you'd e-mail if you would like.
Jennifer@linuxfoundation.org
The U-Tube video that she sent me in the past not only educated me but gave me knowledge to come to my own decisions on what distro to consider having for my personal use.
Hope this helps
Sincerely,
Ztcoracat

You've only told us what you dislike; you haven't told us what it is that puts Debian on the consideration list.
Without that information, we can't give you any more suggestions.
Here is a list of my personal favorite distros in no particular order.
Debian,
Arch,
Frugalware,
Slackware,
Opensuse,
Mepis.

I could recommend any of these to you, but it's likely you seek different things in an operating system, and my suggestions would not satisfy.

Slackware actually will teach you a lot about Linux, so don't just snub it as being difficult. It's actually one of the easiest distros to learn compared to others and it's a lot more stable of a system. Extra packages can be acquired from SlackBuilds.org and really, do you need a LiveCD? Slackware installs and can be up and running even from a complete installation in about 15~30 minutes depending on how fast your system is. In all, I find LiveCDs a novelty and not a real showcase of the abilities of the system.

The one thing people snub Slackware for is administrator-resolved dependencies. It's actually not hard if you follow SlackBuilds.org's pages of what to install. In fact learning dependency resolution will give you a better insight into the foundations of Linux as an OS and break Windows' hold on you, as will learning a system that isn't completely automated out the ying-yang. In realistic terms, Slackware allows you to manage the system, not have the system manage you and itself.

Version 14.0 should be out soon and it's going to have a lot of nice features.

I put Debian there as I haven't had much time trying Debian out.

What the hell do you want then? I noticed that your user agent in this thread has been usually Windows 7. If Windows is working for you, then why not stick with it. We can't help you if you don't tell us what you want. Stability, latest software, deb, rpm, beginner distro, simple under the hood?

Testy testy.

I'm not surprised.
Try LFS.

Ok let's see...
You seem to have no idea what you want or what you're doing?

Don't take that the wrong way, it's a simple truth and not meant as any insult. The main problem is that you're expecting others to advise you and they simply cannot. If someone says, "slackware is the greatest", you will find a problem, if someone suggests Debian, you'll find a problem and abandon it. You need to find your own distro, if any at all, and settle on it.

There is no one size fits all, perfect distro for everyone. For a beginner and windows user I'd suggest you stick with 'buntu or Linux Mint and learn the basics there first - you're not tied to a distro for life and package management is simply irrelevant.

If you want to try more "hard core" distros like Debian or Slackware, manual configuration and spending 5 hours "trying to get the damned internet working" is going to be an ever present issue for you. It's easy when you know how. You think windows is easy - it's easy when you know how. Try telling a person who barely knows how to use the internet that windows is easy. If you have no desire to learn a different way of doing things then GNU/Linux or any *nix is probably not the best choice for you.

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