In the Linux world, there are a few primary giants that most other distros have historically been built on and one of the chief among these is Debian. Giants like this may not be quite “household names” outside our (rapidly growing) sphere, but they’re among the wise council of elders that most of us are familiar with.

Speaking of Debian, you’ve probably heard by now, it’s “The universal operating system”. That’s an official Debian tagline, and you may have seen it in memes or elsewhere across the web.

With just how many distributions are based on Debian, you might have taken a guess as to why. But what does this really mean, and why is it still said today? In this article, we’ll take a peek into the history of this tagline, and what it means in reality. Plus, I’ll answer the question: Does Debian actually live up to this claim?