&gt; Newer packages, sane LTS policy<p>Those two are in opposition: Debian (generally) has new-enough packages, but it&#x27;s <i>stable</i>, which is what one wants on a server system. Meanwhile, Debian&#x27;s LTS story is better than Ubuntu&#x27;s: just upgrade, and know it will work.<p>&gt; easier to get non-free firmware&#x2F;drivers<p>But how often is that needed for server systems?  And of course, there&#x27;re the ethical &amp; engineering issues with using proprietary software in the first place.<p>&gt; seemingly more support from third parties<p>There is that, but if we all wanted more support from third parties, we&#x27;d have stuck with Windows, no?<p>&gt; They&#x27;re both pretty awful due to their automagic(al tendency to break down in mysterious ways)<p>I&#x27;ve not experienced that with Debian in a long time. I used to have issues with Ubuntu, but I don&#x27;t think that they were generally all that bad. Better than what I used to experience with Macs and Windows back in the 90s, anyway.