For many, what differentiates Ubuntu from Debian is its Graphical installer. With the release of Debian Squeeze, Debian introduces a new graphical installer giving a clear signal that it also wants user friendliness. This is a clear sign that Debian has interest in home users too. Until now, Debian which is famous for its "stability", was mainly used by sys admins and "power" users. This article looks at some of the "striking" features of the new Debian release codenamed Squeeze.

• For Debian users, since the release cycle is large compared to that of Ubuntu, for getting latest packages, thay had to rely on backports.org. With the release of squeeze backports.org is now integrated as backports.debian.org. [Read full story here]

• Another important news for Free Software enthusiasts is that Debian developers tried to remove maximum proprietery stuff from the default install. It will not be causing much worry for users having hardware with proprietery software only, since Debian has made alternative arrangements for them. [Read full story here]

• Another important feature is that GNOME has been updated to version 2.30, with some pieces of GNOME 2.32. This means that we are getting the same GNOME as latest Ubuntu. Also gdm3 is the new default login manager.

• The Linux version in Squeeze is 2.6.32. So users will be getting much improved hardware support.

• Much improved network-manager support with ability to set system-level connections, VPN support, full 3G support…

• KDE has been updated to version 4.4.5. Sadly Ubuntu uses latest 4.6.0.

• X.org 7.5 is used. OpenOffice upgraded to version 3.2 . Virtualbox upgrade to version 3.2.

• first Debian release that supports the Haskell Platform, in version 2010.1, including the compiler ghc in version 6.12.1, and ships more than 200 additional Haskell libraries. Haskell is a standardized, general-purpose purely functional programming language.

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