in my opinion you have not tried linux if you have not tried debian or slackware

Ever since Debian Sarge, Debian has not required you to get "down and dirty" if you don't want to explore the nuts and bolts of the system.

Thanks for your replies. They gave me a lot to think about over the weekend. I've decided to give Debian a whirl. If I look at the list rickh quoted, I find that I some of my motivations are there. These are:
Thanks for that quote, rickh. Very useful indeed.

This is me too. I prefer the "real McCoy"

I think there's a bit of me here too. I want to learn about Linux, get to understand it. I just feel that Ubuntu isn't as good for that as Debian.
This is my feeling too. Another reason to give it a go.

Well, I tried something I hadn't thought about before - I downloaded and made a Debian live cd (I'm using it now, acutally). Nice surprise: it feels a bit like Ubuntu, although there are things it doesn't do automatically that Ubuntu does. I managed to get it all configured to my liking, though. The only problem I did experience was that I cannot mount the partition that I have set aside as a back-up for my data. When I try, I get a message that it isn't possible because of a bug. It could be a problem with the live cd version, but I fear I'll need help with this later. I'll post if I do.

Thanks once again,

James

I feel 'at home" with Debian. Everything seems to make sense. As I like older computers only, and do not worry much about speed (because I get old, probably) Debian is always the best choice. And there are programs like "lyx", a very nice front-end to LaTex, that you can install in no time.

Here's my opinion on this:
Is Debian more difficult than Ubuntu: Yes, slightly
Do you learn a lot more about linux and the way your system works with Debian: Yes
Do You Have to be a linux "expert" to install and use Debian: No
Should you be willing to learn and know how to ask for help if you're running Debian: Yes

As for answering the questions aksed by the original poster (in no specific order):
For the most part Debian is pretty easy to use. You learn a lot in doing the install and what you get back is great. What you get by switching to Debian is an OS that's even MORE stable, that's faster and that's less bloated than Ubuntu. So yes, going to Debian is definitely worth it. On the package update/apt/install front, if you pick a good mirror, you'll have better speeds on Debian than you ever did on Ubuntu. For me, when there was a big update on Ubuntu, apt slowed to a crawl, that really never happens on Debian. The Nvidia drivers are just as easy to install on Debian as they are on Ubuntu. Ubuntu certainly prepares you for Debian if you've ever needed to use the commandline, command-line editors, command-line apt, etc. Etch added a lot of good things to Debian and also made it a lot easier to use for new users. When Sarge was stable and Etch was still in Testing (back in September-December 06) i recommended Etch to people because it was SOOO good. Even my friend who's been using Debian since 1999 said he REALLY liked all the improvements Etch made.

OK, after three attempts I installed Debian ok. I don't know if my DVD is corrupt or if I made a mistake in the previous set up procedures, but I tried twice last night and the installation stopped with an error message while it was doing the program installations. However, I do have a little problem to which I'll post another thread.

Hey I resent that, Debian is one of the coolest distros there is. With the netinstall Debian is pretty simple to install. Using apt/aptitude makes installing packages about as easy as it can be. Debian/Kanotix was the first distro I tried and almost 3 years later I am still there after trying most of the other big distros and numerous livecds. It doesn't get any better than Debian Sid.

Just to add that I'm always mystified by the often-voiced assertion that Ubuntu is easier to install than Debian. Debian (Sarge net install) took me less than an hour and all my hardware was detected correctly, broadband worked etc without a single tweak. Explain if you can how it gets any easier than that. Does the Ubuntu CD climb into the drive by itself or something?

Not trying to promote Ubuntu in any way (since I'm a hardcore Debian user), but for starters, it has better probe/detection tools which covers a broader spectrum of hardware and devices than Debian currently does.

I too have had machines that Debian would install without a hitch, but I've also had machines where Debian would recognize nothing and needed "tweaking" even to boot an install cd (no not boot from bios to cd, but to actually load up the kernel on the install cd wihtout any panics, etc). For a n00b, that could be the difference between life and death of a distro. For me, just means more learning and its not that big of a deal.

The other thing which can make some Linux distributions easier to install than Debian is installation of non-free drivers (like nVidia's video drivers). Also, Debian isn't good at providing wide-screen resolutions out-of-box.

However, these two factors don't apply when it comes to Ubuntu; Ubuntu's installer has the same faults as Debian's, in these respects.

Of course, whether you choose to see the non-inclusion of non-free software as a flaw or a feature is a matter of perspective. With Debian, it's part of their very mission, so that's not going to change. With Ubuntu? It ultimately depends on Mark Shuttleworth's whim, but he's under intense Ubuntu community pressure to stick to open source ideals.

Also, one of the other great things about Ubuntu being easier (i'm a Debian User all the way) is that a lot of "restricted modules" are pretty much included stock so basically you have support for ANY hardware and more importantly, the major linux compatible wifi modules (except Broadcom), which is something that's a bit of a pain in Debian...But i agree that the installer is fantastic and it doesn't get much better than a Testing Net Install.

I am a newbie to Linux and have experimented with many different distributions over the past 10 months. I find Debian more complicated than the other Linux flavours I have tried, including the installation. Whereas it's true that this is straightforward enough, you need to be able to answer the questions! A newbie very often doesn't know if his or her Internet connection is static or dynamic, yet alone what his or her Host Domain is, or whether (s)he even has one for that matter. This is obvious enough to experienced users, but it wasn't for me and I guess a lot of others are in my position. The partition procedure was also a little scary, as I didn't understand all the details I had to give. Indeed, I ended up wiping off a partition I wanted to keep (which I had backed up, fortunately!) and then I found that my root partition was smaller than I wanted. I think that the option to be able to use a graphical partitioner as in Mandriva would be a good idea.
As for the configuration of Debian, I found this much more difficult than Ubuntu. It only took me around an hour to get Ubunutu set up, ie Java, Flash, apt-sources, NVIDIA graphics card...However, five days after first installing Debian I'm still trying to configure it properly. It took me hours to find a comprehensive source list (the information's there, it's just that you have to know where to find it!) and I only found one in the end thanks to this forum ! This was a very simple affair in Ubuntu. As for Java, I spent ages trying to get the latest version to work. In the end, I opted for the one found in apt-get, which is quite old. I still haven't got that one sorted out to my satisfaction.
As for the video card, I eventually found this explanation: http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#Libraries, but not before I used the procedure I found on another site and ended up not being able to log into X and having to re-install Debian from scratch.
Then there were the little things, like the Internet connection which had to be re-set every time I started the computer, games that are jerky (I'm starting a new thread on this) and distorted sound.
It simply isn't my experience therefore that Debian is anyway near as easy to configure and install as Ubunutu. However, I knew what I was letting myself in for, having started this thread to find out in advance! I also knew that I was getting what I wanted: a high performance system that teaches me about Linux. But I think that other newbies simply want a system that works without too much fuss, and that is why I believe that Ubunutu is probably better for them, until they have gained a bit of Linux experience and are ready to move onto Debian, which is probably superior in terms of stability and overall performance.

And a good command of the English language does help, doesn't it ? as I see you're from France, like me. A little notebook with entries for each time you try something new does help, too.

Hehe - now there you'll really learn something:

Make sure you download a stage3 tarball - installations using a stage1 or stage2 tarball are not supported anymore.

Trying to use stage1 or 2 will give you major headaches - not that this happened to me

Sure does, bud! But that's no problem for me because I'm English. It's true that speaking English helps, as most of the information is in English. If I only spoke French it would be a lot more difficult, for sure. There are some good forums out there in French though. I've found a lot of useful stuff on some of them.

Now I've got another problem to add to my growing catalogue of irritations: Openoffice won't start! It did yesterday! I'm downloading the new version right now to see if I can install it from source. Hmmm...something tells me I'm going to be here a while!