Debian testing would make a much better choice on the desktop for anyone not actively trying to help Debian development by trying bleeding-edge packages and filing bugs. Run Debian sid if you don't mind encountering breakage and filing bugs, for the benefit of the users of testing who then won't have to deal with the buggy packages you did. :)

These bugs range in severity from "inkscape becoming the default PDF viewer" to "file conflict prevents installing a package" to "libc6 lacks the /lib64 symlink and now no dynamically linked programs on the system can run", and everything in between. Fortunately, the "break the whole system" bugs don't happen often, but still: don't run sid unless you want to help filter out breakage for others by hitting it yourself.

True. The new intel drivers compiles fine with Sid, while not with Squeeze. Will test tonite. Regards.

Still more stable than half the other distributions out there

Not everyone cares about having the latest bits. Sometimes, you want a system which you don't have to upgrade or fiddle with frequently. And yes, that can include desktop systems, particularly desktop systems other than your own. :)

I run Debian Squeeze on the desktop because I have jobs I want that desktop to do for me, without my having to worry about it unexpectedly not being able to do them.

However, I treat Squeeze more as a base to build on than as a complete system. For instance, I work with Ruby via rvm, not native, and use a Firefox Nightly build. In that sense it makes a rock-solid foundation: anything that I'm not responsible for, works. Anything I am responsible for is my call, and can't break the underlying system unless I try quite hard.