Using Debian since Wheezy on my laptops and desktop. I had to learn which packages to install, that Ubuntu might typically have... Volume control for pulseaudio, firmware (plus enable non free repos). I also had to ensure my network card is open source friendly (you can include firmware at install on a usb drive or just have an Linux friendly usb WiFi/ethernet adapter).

I've found Debian less buggy on my machines than Ubuntu.

I use xfce.

If you feel the need to experiment with something that isn't default in the distro, I just use a VM to validate it'll work first or snapshot/backup so I can recover easily.