How is your Python/Django system set up?

I’ve been reading hundreds of tutorials on how to do this and none of them seems to be complete enough. Before I start compiling all the info I gathered (and possibly post it somewhere) I’d like to ask the Django experts how they do it. I have a 256MB slice at Slicehost just for experimenting. So this is what I need to know:

Operating system: Ubuntu Dapper/Feisty or Debian Etch?
Python version: 2.5 or previous? The Ubuntu Dapper repositories don’t have 2.5 yet…
Database: mySQL or PostgresSQL?
Web server: Apache2 alone or Apache2/Nginx?

Also, are you guys getting things from repositories or are compiling from source? Any other tips?