Best Debian Reference?

[David Krider <david@davidkrider.com>]

I'm new to Debian, but have been using Linux full-time for 4 or 5 years. 
What's the best reference(s) to understand the differences between 
Debian and other distros? What I'm saying is that I don't need a primer 
on things like file permissions and such. I need to know the "Debian" 
way of configuring things like network interfaces. (This is just the 
example that has set me to looking.) Sure, I can issue `ifconfig' and 
`route' commands, but how do I make that stuff permanent so that it 
happens at boot time? X might be a good example as well.

TIA,
dk