I've installed on another machine, and this time observe more or less the apache 1 Debian customized start page (except that 2 of the graphics don't show; the one with the Apache feather at the bottom does).
There are two obvious differences between these machines: 1. This one had apache v 1 installed previously, and though I have removed its files I have not purged them. In particular, they remain under /var/www. 2. This one has mpm-worker; the other had mpm-perchild. However, both seem to be running as www-data and using /var/www/ for their root location to display. In short, I think item 1 is the problem. While leaving the customized pages in /var/www is probably consistent with policy, it is unfortunate in this case. For example, the old page refers to httpd.conf, and there are probably other anacronisms. Also the graphics are messed up. Probably if apache2 installed a proper start page of its own it would overwrite the old stuff and the problem would go away. But then, you don't want to overwrite a customized start page...
