I tried enough of it to know that I'll never be as cool as you guys :) I can't tell you how disgusted I was by the entire thing. If you're that INTO low-level bullshit and have the time, why not do BSD?
Some things can't be boiled down to a formula. Everything I've learned over the years tells me Debian sucks, and SuSE doesn't. You know that feel you get when you drive a well-engineered car? Debian is a set of diagrams of the car in some random order. SuSE is the car.
And to stress the point, by supporting SuSE, I'm attacking Microsoft. By supporting Debian, you're wasting your own time while they suck up more and more of the world. Guess what - Windows is born-again hard (about fucking time after 15 years) - Windows XP keeps the good core of NT and fixes its many performance problems - but now that they have a Windows worth owning, they will just stick it to everyone three times as hard to protect it. The only way to combat Windows XP is to make something is available and profitable that is just as easy to install, just as stable, and just as functional. That will NEVER happen with Debian, because there is no profit in it. By supporting SuSE there is a remote chance that Windows will have a worthy competitor, and a financially healthy one.
So, I froth because
1) I can't STAND mob political behavior
2) Debian pegged my trusted "dubiousity" meter
3) I want MS and vendor UNIX to have a realistic competitor.