Debian is like democracy: the worst way of producing an OS, except all the others that have been tried from time to time.

BeOS, AmigaOS, Solaris, most other 80s OSes - they’re effectively dead. Windows and macOS have effectively died once already. The BSDs can stall for years at times. Most Linux distributions (including RedHat) are typically only as good as the fortunes of the commercial (or occasionally public) entity they have behind. In all this, Debian endures, with its slow but inexorable progress, simply because its ideological foundations - not its technical ones - are eminently superior to all the others. Debian contributors don’t do it for the money, so they will be there when money runs out; and they don’t do it for being cool either, so they will be there when OS work is not cool. People will come and go, but the ideal of the “democratic OS” will always be there - hence, Debian will be too. - HN