Dedoimedo wrote, "Anyway, my tolerance levels for un-PnP features of the Linux desktop have dropped significantly, and so I was reluctant to try Debian."
Indeed, seems that if a distro isn't of the "plug-n-play" variety, Dedoimedo has little time for it. I don't approach a release that way, and I think it's fair to say that most Debian users don't, either. But many other users do want something that works right away, out of the box, without hassles. Debian isn't for those types of users. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on your point of view, I guess.
As noted, Dedoimedo tested the live environment, and didn't attempt an installation. This review would have been much more scathing, I suspect, if he had proceeded to try an installation from the live session!
I have not used a live image to install Stretch; I went with a netinstall, and when Stretch was still in Testing I did an installation using the Xfce CD-1 iso.
At the moment, I'm looking at the live session from the
debian-live-9.0.1-amd64-gnome.iso image, on my "old" HP G72 notebook, using an ethernet connection. Maybe it's good that I don't bother to mess around with wi-fi; one less thing to concern myself with.
Default decorations and aesthetics don't concern me, but Dedoimedo would look at the default dssktop and call it "ugly." I'd disagree, but no matter. Anyway, no problem getting online and browsing with Firefox ESR. Trying, for a moment, to look at things through Dedoimedo's eyes, one thing that pops out is that there's no "Install" icon on the desktop, no option to begin installing the system from within the live session. That, of course, has been noted in these forums, and elsewhere, but I kinda wonder why that little convenience wouldn't be included.
One other thing is that after a period of inaction, the screen locker comes on, and then I'm looking at a login screen, and a password is required to get back into the session. Of course there's no indication of what that password might be. The obvious thing to do would be to provide a "hint" right there, which is something that I've seen in other distros, but whatever. Took me only three tries to get back into the session; I tried
debian, then I tried
user, then finally scored with
live. There's some documentation somewhere that tells what password to use, no doubt, but the user would have to actually take a moment to look it up. We all know how that goes -- many users don't want to bother looking
anything up.
Not that I'm complaining. I know what I'm getting with Debian, and I know how to work with it. Debian's my favorite distro, and has been for years. But Debian isn't for everyone. And we all know that Linux isn't for everyone.
I don't know if Debian will ever be the kind of distro that pleases someone like Dedoimedo, but I don't think that this review should be simply dismissed, because there are many users out there who will look at it and realize that they might want to go with a different distro.