Mark
They do indeed sit on the shoulders of giants,
Trouble with Debian is that it is so slow on releases apparently due to friction between developers. As you point out Debian isn't as user friendly as Mint or Ubuntu.
However, since the subject is Mint, have you considered the new Linux Mint Debian[1]? It's basically Mint on top of Debian instead of Ubuntu. The only
........> thing at a time). It's a rolling distro so it basically follows Debian
Testing and doesn't have releases as such, as long as you install updates you'll always be on the latest code (for better or worse). On the face of it, that just sounds like Ubuntu but less stable
I've read about it but as you say "less stable". Questions have been asked if Mint are moving away from the 6 month release... and apparently they are not and intend to keep going along the current route. I think they may be a couple of years away from that change - Mepis went down that route. Ubuntu is still in the red i believe which makes the future unpredictable. Since the first time i used Ubuntu it did seem they took on a heavy workload with their 6 month cycle when an annual release was a more realistic target.
I'm beginning to wonder if rpm through APT isn't a better system. Yum and yast are quite slow but APT and Smart are a faster option.
Mandriva seems to be going through a rocky patch from what i've read. PCLOS is certainly the best rpm distro i've tried. They also produce mini versions of each desktop and you add what you want which i like. Again a one man like Mint but producing a better product. But then again they are producing LXDE and other desktop versions as well as the main three and i think taken on too much.
My New Year Resolution is to achieve the linux 'must do' - a slackware or gentoo build but coping with my mother with Alzheimer's doesn't make finding time easy.
james