diff --git a/bin/dotfiles b/bin/dotfiles
index 7c269c75bf..c63427ae96 100755
--- a/bin/dotfiles
+++ b/bin/dotfiles
@@ -43,10 +43,13 @@ function is_osx() {
   [[ "$OSTYPE" =~ ^darwin ]] || return 1
 }
 function is_ubuntu() {
-  [[ "$(cat /etc/issue 2> /dev/null)" =~ Ubuntu ]] || return 1
+  type lsb_release &>/dev/null && [[ "$(lsb_release -s -i)" =~ Ubuntu ]] || return 1
+}
+function is_debian() {
+  type lsb_release &>/dev/null && [[ "$(lsb_release -s -i)" =~ Debian ]] || return 1
 }
 function get_os() {
-  for os in osx ubuntu; do
+  for os in osx ubuntu debian; do
     is_$os; [[ $? == ${1:-0} ]] && echo $os
   done
 }