Basically, what I'm looking for is a distro that will auto-detect everything with a nice installer, give you a polished Gnome desktop, and have a great package management system. So far I've tried Gentoo and Fedora Core 2 and neither of them have worked for me, so now I want to try Debian. But there are so many Debian-based distros... which is best for me?

I would suggest Debian itself. I understand they are currently working on an installer. You could also try Gnoppix and Morphix.

Does Debian use the stock Gnome or do they include other stuff too? Gentoo had no configuration tools in Gnome, you couldn't even change the time.

Debian doesn't "use" a window manager or a desktop environment. It gives you the option of choosing one for yourself and set it up yourself.

If you want a distro that does everything for you automatically with a nice installer you should run for your life when ever somebody mentions Debian. Debian just doesn't do that and I hope it never will.

If you want an automated distro with a shiny installer I've heard good things about Mandrake's ease of install and auto-detect-ness.

I know what Debian is. I know Debian doesn't provide anything by default, I thought that maybe they polished their packages a little. If you read my topic, I asked for Debian-based distros because I know some of them might be better at auto-detecting stuff than Debian.

I ran Mandrake a while ago... version 8.0. It was buggy. All the reviews I've read about recent versions say it's buggy.

I'm just asking if there is a distro with the following qualities:
Fast (like Gentoo)
Easy Install (like Fedora)
Good, Centralized Package Management (like Debian)
Polished Gnome Desktop (like Fedora)

Maybe something like Fedora with all the stuff like MP3 playing, flash plugin, etc. built in with preconfigured apt4rpm with a lot of repositories? I was just disappointed in how slow Fedora was compared to Gentoo and how hard it was to enable MP3 support across the board. I installed xmms-mp3, but I still don't know how to play MP3's in Rhythmbox or burn MP3's to a CD.

Sorry for the rant, but all I'm askingis... is there a distro for me?

i use libranet 2.8 its debian based and has all of the things u mentioned , i also heard good things about xandros 2

Try the hard drive install of PCLinuxOS...its based on Mandrake but uses apt-rpm. Very polished. Try Mepis...Debian based livecd with a good hard drive installer, which comes as well with all the proprietary goodies one would expect to configure on one's own.

Saying all that, if you want a good distro for using, try Debian (the Sarge installer will do all the work for you if you want it to) or Mandrake 10. Anything else will leave you wanting more, judging on what you have posted so far.

I guess I'll try Debian, none of the alternatives look like they're much different.

Thanks you to everyone who posted a reply in this topic.

Well the only one I can recommend is Knoppix, it should do everything you ask except for it uses KDE as the default desktop!

And it is Debian based.

I agree, knoppix is really nice to get started with Debian. I would not recomment libranet 2.8, as it is out of date, and Xandros is not going to give you as much compatibility with Debian apps, and forget about kernel changes except from them. Knoppix 3.4 is the way to go imho.

Try MEPIS, in my opinion its the best debian based distro out right now easy to install, boots off live cd aka(Knoppix) with easy install from live cd. It is also very fast and has excellent hardware detection as good as mandrake if not better. It has a wonderful gui apt-get install/remove/upgrade program. Its stable, has a easy learning curve and also has just the right amount of packages. Only requires 1 CD and yet comes with just about everything I could ever ask for GIMP, Samba, Open Office etc... I cant believe how many people have not discovered MEPIS for themselfs it blows away mandrake and fedora try it yourself you will see less bloat more stability and more speed. MEPIS is definately going to become one of the main distros players in the future on Linux its updated regularly and its easy enough for a linux begginer to learn or good enough for a advanced linux user to use.

I have never used it but Arch linux sounds like it might be what you want.

Distrowatch just added Mepis to its top 10 list BTW. It unseated Desktop/LX

Congrats to them. Thats a hell of a accomplishment.

Definitely go with MEPIS - I'm using the latest beta and it works great!

http://www.mepis.org/