It appears that Debian 5.0 (aka "Lenny") will soon take its big binocular eyes out into the wider world. The Debian project has completed the first release-candidate of Lenny's installer, which features much-improved support for ARM-based devices, along with much faster installation from "live" CDs.

Lenny's launch was originally scheduled for September, but may have been held up in part by a need for more embedded involvement. Assuming the installer RC meets the needs of early testers, and Lenny is released this month, Lenny will have gestated for 19 months, two fewer than the previous Debian 4.0 ("Etch") release.

The announcement was made on the Debian developer's list by Otavio Salvador, who maintains apt, grub, mtd-utils, squashfs, and a host of other important packages for the project. In his announcement, Salvador called out the following improvements, compared to earlier releases of the Debian installer:

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