New Toy

It sound silly, but it happened to me:)
I decided to install Debian latest stable release since to me the logo is nice and also pak BR who has blog I frequently visit prefer this distro than other.

I take netinstall method. Start with downloading small ISO image from Australian mirror-due my local mirror does not provide AMD 64 architecture.
Most intimidating part is (always) partitioning. This time I create separate /home partition. So in the future I can install any distro without worrying my personal setup & files.
Configuring network also a bit confusing me. It list two device:
-eth0 with Firewire and
-eth1 with nVidia CK8(?) controller.
Since my box only have one NIC, I assume it's always eth0. Then the installer reported it fails to configure the network. I repeat this step, and this time select eth1. Success!
After the base install complete, I was asked to pick a mirror to complete the process. Again I choose Pacific-Australia mirror. My Arch distro also use Pacific mirror, and it fairly fast.
It takes loong time to finish the downloading of 651 files. Around three and a half hour. Thanks it still within my bandwith quota. I choose to install GRUB on MBR to replace deleted GRUB from Open Solaris. The install process going very smooth. Even no additional input from my side for the rest of it.
At the end of installation I reboot and greeted with gdm, where I type my username and password created during installation step.
Then I was presented with blue screen with big Debian logo with some icons on the left. Debian default desktop is GNOME.

Next post installation task are:
-Edited fstab to mount another partition: Arch and a FAT data disk. I still can't write on data disk. Guess because permission issue.
-Make sure multimedia player worked well: MP3 & encrypted DVD. It is.
-Trying hotplug devices: this also worked well.
-Installing Flash (downloaded from Adobe): won't install because no 64 bit version.
-Trying famous apt-get to install media player Audacious: complete.

Overall installing Debian Etch4.0 is fun. Everything is smooth, even xorg detected my screen resolution correctly. Anyway I still need more time to explore this distro and get familiar with it.
To me Arch is like Ferari with the latest and greatest technology on it and of course quite speedy, while Debian more like Rolls Royce where not as fast as Ferrari but very elegant and has different class:))