I was running Debian on my home server for a few years before getting disgusted with the lack of updates and switching to Ubuntu. There still hasn’t been a new Debian release in several years, while there have been two Ubuntu releases since I switched. Many people seem to be defecting from Debian as it continues to stagnate.
Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian who just announced he’s joining Sun, criticized Debian’s lack of progress. Ian describes Debian as “process run amuck” giving rise to a committee mentality where nobody feels empowered to make decisions so no decisions get made.
Since Ubuntu depends on Debian, this is not a good situation. Maybe Ubuntu should split from Debian and no longer use Debian’s upstream repositories.
I hope they don't die because they are a really strong distribition. I think someone needs to just step up and take charge.