Debian is much more than just a collection of packages: - It has a social contract, which it follows (e.g. they take software licensing seriously, developers a

Debian is much more than just a collection of packages: - It has a social contract, which it follows (e.g. they take software licensing seriously, developers attempt to upstream changes) - It has many, many developers (~1000). That is, the long-term health of the project doesn't hinge on one or two people. Although more developers are always needed and welcome. - Debian attempts to integrate packages together (e.g. the Nagios package configures Apache for you) - Debian has a lively community around it. Companies care about it (e.g. see hardware donations, money donations for things like Debian LTS, and Valve adopting Debian). - Debian leads the FOSS community in many initiatives (currently Reproducible builds)