Yup he's right. You can actually install ubuntu packages on debian just as if they were debian packages. =) I know, I've done it. Infact there really isn't a difference other than the ubuntu packages are updated I guess. Which really you could just take debian and add ubuntu depositories, I've done it before.

When I said 'based on', I meant exactly that.

The ubuntu packages are modified debian-packages (modified for ease of use, integration with the ubuntu system, etc - not merely updated). While they MIGHT work on Debian, there is absolutely no guarantee that this is always true, and I know for a fact that trying to install debian-packages in ubuntu can break your system if you're not careful.

1) Etch is the name of the 'testing' release - Sid is the unstable release. Unless you run a server or require 100% uptime, I think you'll find Sid to be very solid indeed. Of course it depends on the packages you install.

2) Very easy. You might have to get a codec package, but even that is a very simple operation.

3) You can choose either one. But going with the developer's site-version will probably render you unable to update the application in question through apt-get. Functionality-wise, there should be no difference though.

4) Pretty much the same answer as no. 3, though I cannot attest to the availability of Jbuilder and Mono.

Python is not part of the standard install. It's easy to install using apt-get. You may want to run the command "apt-cache search python" to see all the many python related software packages you may or may not wish to install. In particular any package ending in "dev" will be development versions of various libraries. The run-time versions are the only versions needed to run them, but as a programmer you'll want the development versions also.

Linux doesn't have a completely standardized file structure. For Debian, you can start off browsing Debian documentation on the internet. There's a LOT of documentation on Debian!

Yup, and a side note to the JRE... The sun's version would probably be best, as it is probably the better and most stable of the versions... That and the JRE package itself isn't distro specific, it runs on any linux distribution.

As for the firefox/mozilla/blah blah question, you can ALWAYS download source code and compile it then install from the developers site. With the one rule that they do supply you code to compile... With this, some sites offer CVS versions of programs that may or may not run better than the standard. such things as gaim2.0 and xchat 2.6.1 or something. Right now I'm running gaim 2.0.0CVS and the xchat 2.6.1 which I had to compile both for. And some programs people even recomend compiling from scratch. One such program is mplayer, I know a lot of people who say compile it. (btw most "packages" such as .deb's that are from developers are usually the same version you can get through apt-get so compiling is really the only solid answer I can give that would have any real advantage of going to the developer site)

Oh and to your SID question... I agree SID is quite stable, but you have to watch package dependencies. There are a LOT of packages that require dependencies that can't be met because they aren't out yet. Like for example udev requires gnome X but gnome X wasn't available until just recently... So of course I couldn't update it, and if I had it would have broke my system. Stuff like that happens a lot in sid, packages that depend on versions that "don't exist" or just haven't been added to the repositories. Of course you can do the horrid thing and manually remove/install the proper packages and dependencies but that doesn't work the best sometimes. so all in all it's best to watch when updating and just make sure things aren't removed that are core components. Or at least components that you use a lot...

jwjody googling debian web server or ubuntu webserver will give you plenty of info to make a knowledgeable choice, likewise googling intranet setup for both. Slackware also is great for server. Good luck.

Thanks for your answers. mushroomboy thanks for the heads up on the packages. Oh, I just realized that the "testing" version is what I want, not SID. I don't want to live on the edge that much.