An early Debian Etch review
Since reading Jan's 30-day PC-BSD test, I poked around a bit and found this well-done review on Debian:
Overall, the default Debian install ‘feels’ fast. Firing up OpenOffice.org took only seconds and Abiword came up almost instantly. Synaptic, GIMP and Scribus also ‘felt’ faster than I am used to under Ubuntu. The only downside was that it didn’t add Scribus to the menustructure. Feelings are not a good measure of performance, I know, but the impression stuck that the desktop is really fast.