Today is Debian's 20 anniversary. This anniversary would have been impossible without a strong community of users and developers. That's why for its commemoration, we asked the Debian community what Debian meant to them. Below you have a selection of the answers we got.

Since I run Debian on my computers, I do not play anymore to 3D shooting games, not because of the lack of Free 3D drivers, but because developing Debian is more fun and addictive.

Debian is a truly community based distro which is devoted to FOSS ideas and standards. It perfectly works on high variety of hardware. Users from all over the world have been using Debian and contributing to it during 20 years. And I am proud to be one of them. Happy Birthday, Debian!

When I considered switching to Linux I asked friends which distribution to choose. I was told skip other distributions that were considered more newbie-friendly at the time and go straight to Debian instead. It might be more work initially, they said, but it would save me the hassle of switching to Debian later on, which I would inevitably do. Turns out they were right. I started my Linux experience more than ten years ago with Debian and have yet to see a better Linux distribution.

[...] You are a worldwide community of volunteers working together for 20 years now. To me this is an encouraging example and, given the sorry state of the world we live in, more important than the technical quality of the operating system. I wish you another successful twenty years and to stay as independent as you are.

I initially started in Debian as it was an interesting technical challenge. Over the years the community and having good standards around what Free Software is has become more important.

As a user of Debian for 14 years, and a former Debian Developer for 10, I would like to wish a happy birthday to the best project on the internet, and the best Linux distribution ever. Thanks for all of your support over the years!

"Rock Solid Stability and Absolute Freedom" Thats what Debian means to me.

Debian gives me a feeling that I am using the best linux has to offer. You know your machine is in safe hands.

As a long time Debian user and sometimes supporter [...] I wish Debian all the best for next 20 years and beyond! Debian is the universal operating system. And it's free (and not just as in beer ;-)

Debian is an awesome combination of obsessive high quality software and software freedom. It's a pleasure to be able to use and contribute to this project. Thanks to all for their excellent work! Cheers to 2**20 years more!

[...] I am so very thankful to all of the people who have contributed to and continue to contribute to such a wonderful ecosystem of tools. I love the commitment to the long term goals of security, freedom and transparency with respect to the computer systems that we all use and rely upon and the information that we store on them.

Debian is the operating system that makes me free.

Debian is a family gathered around great idea. Its pure love.