I've had the pleasure of taking a special Debian 5.0 distribution (Debian 5.0 i386 XFCE LXDE) for a recent test drive as a virtual machine in Citrix XenServer 5.0.

I have been using Ubuntu since version 5.04 came out. And let me add, this is the damnest Linux distro out there today !! I was a Debian devotee but after 4 years of Ubuntu, now I am a born-again Ubuntu convert.

Quite possibly the most distinguishing feature of Debian-based Linux distributions (such as Ubuntu, Mepis, Knoppix, etc) is their package system - APT. In this article, we are going to highlight some of APT’s best features, and share a few of the lesser known features.

The Debian development community has officially released version 5.0 of the venerable open source Linux distribution. The new version, which is codenamed Lenny, includes updated software, security enhancements, and improved hardware support.

OK, so you use the same application every time you login. So, you are wondering, how do I start that application so that it is already running when I start up? Easy, create an entry in the Session manager so that it will start on boot. Here is how to do that.

Open Sessions Preferences

Now you can use grub2 in Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 Etch. Grub2 supports high quality background images. Grub2 also supports booting an OS in an ext4 partition.

"Giving up on a position within a free software project when you know you’re no longer managing to do an effective job is a wonderfully liberating experience. Now that I have started to talk with Miriam Ruiz about handing over the Debian Jr. project, I can stop worrying about the leadership task and just have fun with it..."

Using free and open source software (FOSS), advocates like to say, is not a popularity contest. It's about doing what's right. However, the Debian and Ubuntu Popularity Contest projects might disagree.