I found the standard "put the disk in, press 'yes,yes,yes' " with Ubuntu got me into a X server, with nice Gnome configuration, with a working Network.

Debian did none of these (at the time), it was a text installer which asked loads of questions I didn't really understand, and didn't install X or gnome or install wireless drivers by default.

Of course, I suspect the things you had to do to Debian to make Ubuntu wasn't very much -- just hide lots of installer options behind an 'advanced' option, and set a bigger set of default packages to install. But it was enough to help me get into Linux.