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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Debian is straightforward and compatible, simplifying engineers' tasks.
Debian is open source, lightweight, and offers a good release cycle.
Debian positively impacts organizations by reducing costs with lightweight operation on Amazon EC2.
Debian provides stability, scalability, and needed requirements.
Debian offers zero downtime and reliable package management.

CONS

Debian lacks regular communication about updates and new features to keep users informed.
Software installation methods could be improved, as it currently relies on multiple package management services.
The slow access to newer software and hardware support limits usability, particularly with newer components.
The scalability of Debian on-premises is limited due to hardware dependencies.
Debian should have a reset feature to restore initial default settings if errors occur.
 

Debian Pros review quotes

reviewer2795433 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Jan 18, 2026
<p>Debian positively impacts my organization by allowing us to utilize a much more lightweight operating system with Amazon EC2 instances, which greatly reduces costs because we can use EC2 instances with lower RAM.</p>
Badal Shrivastav - PeerSpot reviewer
embedded software engineer at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Jan 12, 2026
Debian has been a very reliable and stable foundation for all the systems I have worked on, and its package management, transparency, and predictable updates have been extremely helpful, especially for embedded and production environments.
reviewer2796870 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer (Backend) at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Jan 13, 2026
Debian has positively impacted my organization, and I have noticed specific improvements since adopting it.
Learn what your peers think about Debian. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Anurag Rai - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Engineering Specialist at BT Group
Nov 1, 2026
The best features Debian offers, which really stand out for me, are the default inclusion of IP tables and IP filters that block unwanted traffic, along with UFW and Netplan for interface configuration, making it well-organized compared to other OS options.
reviewer2796165 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Support Manager at a educational organization with 5,001-10,000 employees
Jan 13, 2026
Debian offers features that are best for my needs, including being open source, which allows for the implementation of many things and the use of a wide variety of open-source tools.
HarshalJethwa - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Operations Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Apr 23, 2026
Debian is extremely stable, production-ready, and secure with regular updates.
AR
Cloud Solutions Specialist at Cloud Kinetics
Jan 3, 2026
Debian has positively impacted my organization by bringing strong security and consistent compliance awareness.
reviewer2797047 - PeerSpot reviewer
Embedded Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Jan 14, 2026
The best features Debian offers are that it is fast, simple, and long-term supported.
reviewer2774466 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Nov 3, 2025
The best features Debian offers are its low weight, lightweight architecture, and faster response to services.
reviewer2774178 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder at a media company with 1-10 employees
Oct 31, 2025
Debian offers the best features in that it is open source, simple, and battle-tested, with a good release cycle.
 

Debian Cons review quotes

reviewer2795433 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Jan 18, 2026
<p>The stable kernel because it is going to be older and naturally stable does not always support brand new components such as CPUs or specialized GPUs out of the box, which can make it difficult to use there.</p>
Badal Shrivastav - PeerSpot reviewer
embedded software engineer at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Jan 12, 2026
What keeps it from being a perfect score is mainly the slow access to newer software and hardware support, as well as documentation that is somewhat fragmented for advanced use cases.
reviewer2796870 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer (Backend) at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Jan 13, 2026
There are certain areas where Debian can definitely improve, particularly in restricted access privileges for certain aspects.
Learn what your peers think about Debian. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Anurag Rai - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Engineering Specialist at BT Group
Nov 1, 2026
I chose an eight out of ten because of the missing features we discussed, such as a command history similar to what Red Hat or Oracle Linux provides, and the lack of a preview option before installations.
reviewer2796165 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Support Manager at a educational organization with 5,001-10,000 employees
Jan 13, 2026
In terms of scalability, Debian on-premises is not very scalable because it depends on your hardware.
HarshalJethwa - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Operations Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Apr 23, 2026
Debian currently has some older packages that are not available in the latest version.
AR
Cloud Solutions Specialist at Cloud Kinetics
Jan 3, 2026
Customer support for Debian has been acceptable. We approached the Azure Debian support, and while it seems adequate, they need to improve somewhat.
reviewer2797047 - PeerSpot reviewer
Embedded Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Jan 14, 2026
About the features of Debian, of course, it is a slow distribution like many others.
reviewer2774466 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Nov 3, 2025
I cannot say that I have seen a return on investment with Debian because I am a DevOps engineer, and it is my job to do this.
reviewer2774178 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder at a media company with 1-10 employees
Oct 31, 2025
It seems there should be a more deterministic way to do that. It does seem that you are running a lot of random install scripts to install things or relying on another two or three package management services, so there could be better software installation methods.