Why is Debian so old?

Debian stable has a fairly (absurdly) long release cycle. Once it is released, only security updates are provided. So as time passes, software becomes “old.”

Is Debian better than Ubuntu?

Generally, Ubuntu is considered a better choice for beginners, and Debian a better choice for experts. … Given their release cycles, Debian is considered as a more stable distro compared to Ubuntu. This is because Debian (Stable) has fewer updates, it’s thoroughly tested, and it is actually stable.