After trying a few gnome live CD http://www.gnoppix.org/, I found that I prefered the Gnome environment over the KDE environment.

Given that a few friend used Ubuntu to showcase linux (and debian), I decided to try that distro (plus it's among the top 5 at distrowatch.com, so it seemed like I could find some help).
Net Result?
Well, I have an OS that does what I want, easy to install (like many other) and with some commitment to stability and security in the long term (like only a few: mandriva, red hat/fedora, debian, suse, most BSD and UNIX)
Yeah, that's a lame journal entry, but whatever, that's not my cup of tea, I'm only trying
So, to be a bit more usefull, here is a small list of interesting software, which aren't prominent by default, that I would recommend to get a nice environment:

• Liferea: rss reader with preview of the item. With either the gecko or gtkhtml engine, with gecko it becomes a browser, though without the securities on privacy that a full browser would include (cookies and the like)
• Leafpad: a really minimalist text editor in a graphical environment
• Revelation Password Manager: because while I remember some strange password, I can forget my door code.
• Inkscape: I'm a poor drawer, but it doesn't show immediatly in SVG :)
• Frozzen Bubble: a small game
• Art Manager: to download wallpaper and other graphic elements from art.gnome
• Boot Up Manager, to disable and restart services when away from the keyboard, but close to the mouse...
• Dasher, when I really do not want to use the keyboard...

If anyone is interested, it is based on debian, use KDE as the default desktop, includes openoffice, firefox, acrobat reader, and other applications.
Flash and Java are enabled.
Its hardware detection is top notch (on my pavillion zd7000, the only thing that it didn't detect properly was the odd resolution: 1440x900).
Instalation is a breeze, it's a liveCD and you install from the KDE environment.
finaly the CD can be used to restore X and GRUB.