Why do I like Debian

I get asked that question a lot.

Up until now, it has been a bit difficult to put it into words for me.

I know I prefer it. I have more Debian and Debian based installs than anything else.

What exactly is it about Debian that appeals to me though?

I finally figured it out today.

I have always been the type that likes to do it my own way. I don't just take the standard things and be happy with them.

I like to take it apart and see what's going on inside. Moreso, I like to lay things out the way I think they should go best.

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved Lego blocks. I thought they were the best things ever.

Back then, Lego block sets were just a big box of various shapes and types of Legos. Not the pre-determined sets that are available now, like pirate ship Lego set or space shuttle set Legos. Nope, back then it was you, a big box of god only knows how many different pieces and a couple pages of instructions on how to make the things pictured on the box cover. That's it. It was up to you and your imagination.

They gave you the base set and the blocks. That's it. You decided what to build and how to build it. You could use the instructions and have a good looking item or totally wing it and have something even your mother wouldn't recognize.

To me, Debian is the old fashioned Lego block set of Linux.

They give you a clean base and all the blocks in the form of packages in the repos. After that, it's up to you.

You can even decide which box of blocks you want to use, or mix and match from the various repos for the really imaginative ( and bold ).

That spells nothing but fun to me.

Each distro has it's own appeal to different people. I am not going to make a judgment on any distro in this article. Just saying why I Like Debian so much.

I like other distros for other reasons and maybe I'll explain those sometime in the future. Maybe not.

All I can say is give me a Debian netinstall disk or a base livecd and I'm a happy camper.

For me, it just doesn't get better than that.