Wow, that is an old version of RHEL.
As for Debian, stable is way behind in new software adoption, but they do that because they want it to be, well, stable. Debian Testing is much more up-to-date, but you have the problem of being a little more unstable. In general, the only time that I use Debian is when I am putting together a server, otherwise if I want debian tools I use Ubuntu.
Linux use isn't about how l33t you have to be to run the distro, if Linspire finally put together a good frontend for rpm's, that is great. It is just that Yast and Yum are both pathetic when compared to apt-get, apdept, and emerge IMO.