Full customized or generic distro?

Systems like R-Pi are resourceless. I mean, they have low RAM, limited processing power  compared to desktop computers. So building a specific distro, compiling software tied to that system is the best way to obtain good performance. But this has a drawback. Maintenance. On the other hand we can use a generic distro, but probably we will loose performance.

I'm choosing the middle way. Standard distro with some optimized packages. I will loose some performance, but i'll gain lots of packaged software. Changing from a media server to a web server would be as easy as type apt-get install . And, by using Debian, packaged software is easy to maintain. I can build some optimized debs like libc6, bzip2, gzip, apache, xbmc and  put then on a dedicated repository.

¿Why RPi?

I've never been a great fan of embedding world. But Raspberry Pi changed that, It's not all about pricing (besides 35$ is quite cheap). RPi has momentum, has community even when it's not released yet, and supports my favourite distro,  Debian.

So, take a tour over the forums. RPi can be used for coding, as media center/player, download center,  and why not, even for gaming. Applications are endless.