Debian 5's Five Best Features

Despite delays and internal arguments, Debian 5, Lenny, has finally arrived, and it's a darn nice Linux distribution.

You don't have to take my word for it. Consider what Warren Woodford, the well-regarded Linux developer, who uses Debian for the foundation of his SimplyMEPIS Linux distribution, has to say. Woodford, who switched MEPIS' cornerstone distribution from Ubuntu to Debian in 2007, said, "Behind the scenes, MEPIS is being used more and more in demanding environments, so I was happy the Debian teams decided to use the hardening features in gcc to increase the security of Debian in Lenny." Woodford added, "I know a lot of our users were happy that Debian decided to continue supporting KDE 3.5. They like what they have and don't want to be forced to learn the KDE 4 look and feel."

Even when Debian doesn't get it quite right, from where Woodford sits, he still praises Debian for making it easy to add features. "I think it would have been good for Debian if they could have bent their "freeze" rules and included Bind 9.6 [Berkeley Internet Name Domain-the program that runs the Internet's master address system: DNS (Domain Name System)]. But thanks to the flexibility of using a the Debian core, it was easy for us to add Bind 9.6 to MEPIS 8.0 for users who need to comply with the US OMB (Office of Management and Budget) mandate for DNSsec (DNS security extensions) support." Read more...