Why I'm running boring ol' Debian Lenny, the short version

I have Ubuntu on a desktop and two laptops around my house and can't remember the last time I had a problem with the distro that required me to do some Googling. I suppose it was several months ago. Now that I know what I want at initial setup I don't have to relearn the basics, and everything just seems to work. Although I appreciate Debian as the basis upon which Ubuntu rests (and really depends on), it doesn't seem as polished and ready "out of the box."

I've used Ubuntu since Dapper, on a variety of machines. I've been "bitten" on at least one machine by nearly every release. My last was 9.04 and I swore "never again."

Exception: I installed 9.10 Ubuntu Netbook Remix on my Acer Aspire One 1.6 GHz Atom/1 GB RAM/160 GB HD netbook and I really like it. The UI is very well designed for the 9" screen and I was lucky enough that my WiFi worked without tweaking. (Not everyone is, depending on chipset for that particular model Aspire One.)

I could could have a faster netbook if I installed Arch or Debian and a lightweight DE, but the netbook isn't my primary machine and UNR is quite adequate. Not worth my time to customize.

I find the lack of polish on Debian to be a feature. I get to configure things my way and don't have a lot of distro-default programs that I don't want and don't need to uninstall or keep updated. A matter of taste.

@igneousquill

I totally agree that "your mileage may vary" is the rule here. It really depends on the hardware you have and what you want to do with that hardware/software combination.

It's funny, because Linux distributions aren't exactly known for working their best with the absolutely newest hardware; it takes a while for the development to catch up with the newer bits out there. So things that are maybe a year old start to hit that "sweet spot" in FOSS operating systems.

In my case, everything I have is old — 7 years+ — and I'm relying on FOSS to keep it running a bit longer. From a personal standpoint, I see a huge lack of foresight in what Xorg (and by extension the whole Linux/BSD community) has put users of slightly aged Intel video through over the past few years.

With Intel being one of the few "good guys" who tend to release code for their drivers, it should be the best of times for those with Intel hardware, not the worst, which is what I've experienced periodically in the post-2.6.18 world.

As far as Ubuntu being more polished, I do agree with you. There are more than a few things you must do to get a Debian box to do all the things that Ubuntu does in the default (or at least after adding restricted-extras). But for me, the constant tweaking I was doing just to keep Ubuntu running at all made it easy for me to switch to Debian, where at least I do the tweaking and fixing once and then have a year or two to sit back and enjoy a working system before the next release. ... and even after that you still get security patches for at least a year. It makes total sense on the server but isn't totally out of the realm of doable on the desktop either.

As I've written more than a few times, I had many reasons for using Ubuntu, not the least of which was the huge community that has grown up around it. I just got tired of the way Ubuntu works/doesn't work with my hardware. As I say above YMMV, but I'm less a hobbyist and more just trying to get work done, and Ubuntu just isn't doing that for me at this point (although had I stuck with 8.04 LTS, I expect that I'd be a whole lot happier with the situation).

I have tried so many times to load UBUNTU 9.10 and Linux Mint 8 and Debian & Caine & Fermilab and none of the new distros will load on an HP using a NVIDEA GeForce 6150SE. Yes, there is a driver for it AFTER you get it loaded, but the monitor will shut down due to wrong settings, long before you get the OS loaded. 8.04 runs fine. Someone left drivers out of the install pkg. I've even tried using a driver CD during install and it fails. Probably doesn't effect a majority of users, but a BIG prob for a few!

@mugwump40

You can load Ubuntu 8.04, so can you upgrade through 8.10 to 9.04 and 9.10? That might work.

Personally I'd stick with 8.04 and then try with the live CD of 10.04 when it comes out.

The great thing about live CD distros is that you can try them before installing to see if you can get anything at all.

Since Debian uses a text-based installer, I'm wondering if you're able to boot the Debian install disk and at least install the system. Or does it totally crap out even with that installer?

I have had the same experience with my hp laptop & ubuntu, it will not configure the graphics which employs the Intel Express 4 Chipset, neither will it recognise how to connect to my wifi. On non-hp laptops i.e. Fujitsu Siemens and Tiny I have no problems. These things more or less configure themselves once I provide SSID and security key. As for back tracking by installing earlier distro's. I do not think we should look this way for a solution. It would be better to re-examine the graphics configuration in a revised installation package so that it caters for these irritating problems. Moving forward not retro.
I find Vista installs on all the machines with no fuss at all. Now, that is irritating.

As mentioned above, I like the clean approach of Debian Lenny - even from the alpha version looked so cooooool.
However, taking a quick inventory in our house, my son and daughter use Mint, my wifes laptop (a Toshiba Sat Pro approx 5 years old) runs Mepis Antix, my eeePc runs Ubuntu NBR(basic) and my main machine runs Ubuntu 9,10 x64. The Debian Lenny I like so much, runs as several virtual m/c's on the Ubuntu 9,10 m/c.
I would describe myself as a newbie, even though ive been trying Ubuntu since it was first released. IMO 9.10 is probably the most newbie friendly version yet. Mint still beats it for straight out of the box useability. I tend to use Debian for experimenting, and learning how to configure Linux and the miraid of applications. I have tried server editions but like my gui too much.
The Debian Live disk works well, but could do with an installer, as you end up having to carry out a second download.
The beauty of Debian/Ubuntu/Mint, for me is that although different OSes, by having the same core components, I only have to learn to support one family of OSes, my skills are transferable, but each member of my family has a distro more suited to their wants/needs, as with life one size does not fit all, and we at least have more options open to us for how we run/setup/use our PC's.