Happy birthday, #Debian!

Even though I am no longer a Debian developer (I retired in 2019), and I am only using it on one legacy server, it is still a distribution and a community I have fond memories of.

Yes, there were issues, there were reasons why I resigned and why I'm likely never going to put on a swirly hat again. But all those pale in comparison to what Debian gave me through the (almost) two decades I was part of it.

If it weren't for Debian, I would not be here today. I'm not sure I'd even be alive. It isn't only knowledge I got from Debian. I had a second family, a community, IRC channels full of weird people. It meant so much more to me in those years than a distribution - the technial parts were the least. It was everything else that meant so much. I have so many fond memories, and only very few are related to Linux, or anything tech... most of the fond memories are of people.

I wish Debian a long future where it can continue to be a great community for future generations, just as it was for me, at the time I needed that the most.

From the bottom of my heart: thank you.