Getting Debian

When I'm thinking of trying out a new distro, or even an updated version of a distro I already use, I typically to download the iso image of the very latest version.

Since I'm looking at Debian I have some choices to make. First I need to choose what version of Debian I want to run, the choices are:
OLD STABLE - currently this is 4.0 or "Etch". This was a great version but I think it's getting a little old.
STABLE - as of today, 5.0 "Lenny" is listed as current stable. Debian recommends STABLE for all production systems.
TESTING - will be the next STABLE version, well once it's "stable". 6.0 is known as "Squeeze".
UNSTABLE - "SID" is unstable, since I don't do dev work I stay out of this chain.

OK, so maybe I could go a little bleeding edge with Squeeze, but I like Lenny a bunch so I want to test that out as my first choice. The next question is which iso to get? Basically this comes down to two parts: what is your machines architecture, and how do you want the media bundled?
- Debian builds their OS for PCs, old Macs, even mainframes. I'll be going i386 since it will play nicely with both my virtual environment and my older laptop.
- Debian has several combinations of packages available from DVD down to a business card CD. I don't like bloat so I'll be getting the smallest iso that will boot up with a working internet connection.

So knowing I want a netinstall of Lenny for i386 I can go to www.debian.org and click Getting Debian, Download Small CD, and click the link for either the 40Mb or the 180Mb sized i386 image. You can browse to the same spot or just click one of these: 40Mb or 180Mb I know the smaller one has everything I'll need so I'll be going with that.

One last thing, when I'm fetching new or large iso files I always use bit torrent. I get my copy and I leave my client open so I can seed the file for others. Be kind and do the same.