> Admitedly it's been awhile since I've tried to install Debian. But from what I've heard, it's not gotten much better.

What you describe is pretty much what I had to go through to get my work machine working. Once it *is* up and running, maintaining it -- adding packages, updating them, etc -- is easier than I ever imagined ANY operating system could make it, but getting to that point is awful. It's nice to hear that that isn't standard Linux these days, though.