The past year or so I've used Debian exclusively. It was my first year using Linux for all my PC needs. The year began to close, and I reflected on Debian's performance. Before I praise or bash Debian, I'll let you know that I spent time with Linux previously, but only for a two year program training my over-inflated ego basics of Linux, networking, etc.
Goodly:
Debian served me well most of the year. The fudgery of no sudo user confused me at first. It was a minor matter. I moved on pushed it down my computer experience memory hole. Out of the USB Debian performed flawless! I was impressed to a degree that I tried to convert others to Debian. "You can ditch Windows now," I would exclaim!
Long have I disliked Windows. It goes back to 2002. I was a 28 year old returning to school for Journalism. I only had money for a cheap all in one computer without an OS. I decided to buy an OS at the school bookstore. I can't remember the flavor they were selling of Linux, but I wanted it. However, the bookstore fellow talked me out of Linux.
"You ever use Linux before," He asked with an error of caution.
"No. I don't want to pay for Windows though," I replied.
He went on to tell me that Linux was mostly text based and I couldn't return it whether it worked for me and my hardware or not.
I believe it was $150 I paid for a copy of Windows Me. It was a piece of shit. My long road wanting to go Linux began.
I'll save the history for another time...
I was happy with Debian but not always. I can chalk up my minor peeves with Debian to my apprentice level knowledge of Linux. Six months into use, I repeatedly received notifications that my /var storage was near full. About every two weeks I'd clear it by looking up commands online.
I did try to set up recurring purging of /var. I never got it to work correctly. Later, updates and mirrors started error messaging. Wine I could never get installed. Did I want to creep through the Internet reviewing dependencies and conflicts -no.
Ubuntu isn't cool. It isn't edgy. It also isn't tweaky. Yes, it's created from Ubuntu and distributed by a server company. I don't care at this point. I installed Ubuntu and it's working flawlessly! They software depository even runs smoothly! Debian's wouldn't load half the time or glitch out.
So, I'm happy again and I didn't have to buy a key or spend $150 on a disc with a key. Windows is good. It servers a large population. But it has become an advertising OS. Who wants to pay for advertising?