Recommend me a good BT client to run under Debian. The default ('btdownloadgui') lacks any features other than simultaneous DL/UL. Also, I'm looking for a good program to rip CDs into mp3 or maybe ogg.

An excellent bittorrent client for linux is Azureus.

i use bittornado it works the same as bittorrent except you can adjust the settings, for cd ripping i use ripperX

Does ripperX include a plugin for encoding mp3s, and if not, where can I find that?

Azureus is a top bittorrent client! For CD ripping I use Grip, it'll rip, encode, create playlists, use a predefined directory layout and email your mum and tell her you've been a good boy. It's not bad actually

ctorrent is my favorite bittorent. It's very small and doesn't use a lot of resources.

I use Azureus for Bittorrent and Grip for music ripping/encoding.

If you've got the reources to spare Azureus is great (it's not THAT bad but on low spec system running other stuff already...), has loads of functionality (including it's own in built tracker if you need one). There are plenty of others that are more 'lightweight' but without such funcitonality. It's easy to install, just need to instal lthe latest Java runtime environment aswell.

Grip is nice and simple, clean and works like it should, got mine from FC 3 Repo which got me al lthe codecs and stuff like lame. have successfully riped to MP3 with that