Debian was born 17 years ago! That is amazing to see a project lasting so long. I have been using Linux mainly for several years, but I had never ever tried Debian even I had tried Ubuntu and a few Ubuntu based distros. What could be better to try out a distro on its birthday and read its history (Isnt that so sweet to name a distro with your wifes and you name?) while waiting for installation?

I downloaded the 5.0.5 Lenny x86 180MB small CD and installed it using PPPoE, the installation took about 37 minutes including packages downloading. It was smooth and easy. I didnt expect that, I thought its still using text-mode installation and you have to do some configuration in text editor, silly me.

The first boot took about 30 seconds to login screen, I have to say Debians booting screen was the most boring one I have ever seen. No colors, well, just get the job done, right? The shutting down screen was even more interesting only showing acpid: exiting, then power is off.

The default installation option is with GNOME, the version I have was 2.22.3, kind of old. Kernel version is 2.6.26. 3.1 GB space was taken and 83 MB memory used after login. My current Gentoo amd64 took around 88-92 MB.

I wasnt planning to update it to with bleeding edge softwares and drivers. So, thats probably the all experience I would have with Debian.

If you havent tried it, go get it!

Happy 17th Birthday, Debian!

PS. Seventeen reminds me of this, I wonder two decades later what Debian and other distros would be.