Debian or Ubuntu



I really like the amazing number of packages that are in the Debian distribution however recently I see the same packages in Ubuntu: the Edgy has ~21000 packages exactly like the Debian Testing.

So, since this requisite of mine (large number of packages) is now also satisfied by Ubuntu, I would like to know if there is any reason to prefer Ubuntu over Debian Testing for a desktop or vice versa? Please note that I am not referring to Debian "Stable" which I would not choose anyways. Also note that it would be ok for me to occasionally pick a specific package from the Unstable if needed.

I heard from someone that the Debian kernels miss the most advanced/recent/edgy features compiled in, so that you often have to recompile. Is this thing true? This would be a deciding factor for me because I would really like to avoid this: my computer is old and recompiling takes forever (and also a lot of disk space).

Note that I don't know much about the Debian kernels because I didn't actually use Debian extensively, only briefly, and zero Ubuntu

Note that I have already read this:
http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/relationship

TIA
.



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