I too have been using Debian for over a decade, and I've come to rely on it, so I hear your concern at having to "switch" to something new. But I don't think Devuan is really all that "new".
For almost two years I've had Devuan ascii with mate desktop in a VM that I use daily for a variety of jobs. I did it originally as a lark, but over the months, I've come to rely on it. I'm not a developer, so I'm not tuned to the gory details, but from a user point of view, Devuan might as well be Debian -- but without the need for systemd. The only reason I haven't upgraded to beowulf is sheer laziness. But all this talk has gotten me inspired. I'm definitely planning to upgrade to beowulf soon now. I recommend it! Rick
