SUSE 9.0 Pro Production Quality?

I had a discussion with my local LUG and a member had some interesting threads to share. Basically it showed that SUSE 9.0 is not really a production level version. For production level use, it is recommended to go with the Enterprise version of SUSE. Has other people got this impression? My concern is that my company can't afford to purchase any more software at this time so would I be better off looking at something like Debian? I know this is kind of off topic, but basically I am curious if 9.0 Pro is secure and stable enough for my organization needs. Thanks, Eric -- ______________________________________________________________________