Owen:
This is exactly why I think Debian is not the way for a Linux begginer
Why do you assume that *all* Linux beginners know Windows 9x? I didn't and people on platforms other than x86 won't either. Debian's perfectly good for a beginner -- copious documentation, fairly simple installation including the documentation, wide range of available prepackaged software. The two things it misses are a little work on the installer to make it more robust and some good easily-selected graphical desktop installations.
The same problem exists not just with UNIX like environments and with software, but also buying fruit and a hole series of things in this world. If you don't know Okra exists you will never cook with it let alone perfect your cooking.
I agree entirely, but we can't start off by assuming that everyone is a master of Greek cookery. It must be more accessible than that and one of the crying shames is that many Linux distributions are in danger of appealing to the Windows power user rather than the new Linux user.