This is not a rant about Debian vs. Ubuntu. I used both, loved both, and I'm currently using Debian Lenny. It's not about Debian versus any other distribution either: in fact, I only tried a few other distros, and most of them were Debian-based. Here are the top 10 reasons for which I enjoy using Debian:

Last week we introduced ourselves to Sidux, the excellent Debian Sid implementation that makes Debian Sid a bit friendlier. Even though I thought I gave a number of reasons why a user might prefer Sidux to Debian Sid, or Ubuntu, or some other Debian derivative, they apparently were not clear to a number of readers. So here they are in nice bullet-pointed lists:

You can't argue Debian's irrelevance using Ubuntu as an example. If you're using Ubuntu (or Linux Mint, or Mepis...), you're really using Debian with some enhancements. According to a presentation given recently by Debian Project Leader (DPL) Stefano Zacchiroli, only 7% of Ubuntu is directly derived from upstream projects, Canonical's projects, or other non-Debian sources.

Debian GNU/Linux (Debian for short) tends not to attract the same attention as more flashy distros such as Ubuntu, even though the popular Ubuntu package is, in fact, Debian based.

sidux 2009-02 is a live Linux CD based on the Debian Linux distribution and, as anyone who spends time in the GNU/Linux world knows, Debian has several branches. sidux 2009-02 is based on Debian sid, the unstable branch of Debian.

«The Debian project announced yesterday that it has renamed the former “Custom Debian Distribution” concept (under which Debian projects such as Debian Edu, Debian Jr, Debian Med, Debian GIS and Debian Science were collectively known) to the catchier name “Debian Pure Blends.” ...»

"... I am a full-time Debian user. Debian has plenty of really great sources of information and support — it’s been around a long time, it has many, many users, and no matter what problem I discover, it seems like 'they’ve seen it all before.' Debian looks great, it works great, and I couldn’t be happier. [...] However, what’s the fun in using Debian? I once installed some stuff on a Debian-server, with some help from a Howto, and everything just worked like it said in that Howto! ..."

Via thedebianuser: http://blog.thedebianuser.org/?p=282

Debian doesn’t love me. I dunno what I did to incur such defiance, but one thing is for sure: I’m very grateful for the folks at Mepis, and Canonical, Sidux, and others who can tame Debian and make it usable.

Sidux is a new Debian derivative that's still just a baby, born in January 2007. Sidux announced a brand-new release on June 26, Sidux 2008-02, so we're going to kick the tires and take it for a drive, and see what sets it apart from other children of Debian.