Debian, on server and laptop. One of the reasons for choosing Debian on the laptop is that I tend to use older hardware - currently ranging from a series of Thi

Debian, on server and laptop. One of the reasons for choosing Debian on the laptop is that I tend to use older hardware - currently ranging from a series of Thinkpad T42p's to a HP 2230s - which tends to balk at the sheer size of 'modern' desktop environments. I also happen to prefer something less obtrusive so I 'standardised' on a combination of Xmonad, Dzen, Trayer and Conky combined with mate- or gnome-terminal. For this, Debian is just fine. Power management sometimes needs some fiddling with before it behaves, but the same would go for Ubuntu. Last but not least, I prefer the stability of Debian - even when using Sid - over the more brittle Ubuntu. Once I've installed a machine I like to be able to keep it up to date using a simple apt (dist-)upgrade, something which tends to 'just work' with Debian but 'usually break' with Ubuntu and its derivatives (eg. Mint). I now have one system left running LMDE (the Debian version of Mint), one on Mint, one Ubuntu (Maverick, from 2010... my wife and kids love it so I keep it as it is) and the rest is Debian. All servers are on Debian, usually a combination of Stable with some added Testing/Unstable packages.