I've recently known that there will be a Workshop about i18n and custom distributions on the Ubuntu Conference that is going to take place in MatarĂ³ next week.
I'll try to go to the Conference, as I feel it can be very interesting; anyway I have to say that I plan to install Debian on my mother's laptop (my brother gave it to her); I've installed Ubuntu and I agree on how easy is to install it, but for me Debian installations are as easy as the Ubuntu one and I want to support Debian and be able to customize it, not use another Distribution.
I have nothing against Ubuntu, really. I believe it is a great Project, but I'm a little bit tired of reading that a lot of Debian Developers recommend it instead of Debian.
I would like to be able to do something to fix Debian instead of telling people to install a different Distribution, but currently it seems difficult to do if we don't release Sarge soon. Sad.