I personally use a beta of Sidux (
sidux.com) which is basically Debian
*unstable* (or "Sid" as it is known; hence SIDux) modified by some very
easy to use scripts. Sidux is what evolved from a developer split from
the original Kanotix distro and aims to provide enhanced stability to an
"unstable" build ("unstable" from the debian point of view; much more
in
name than in practice, in my opinion.)
A little OT note: I think that "unstable" refers to the fact that
things are updated frequently, so if you have some binary package
that depends on particular libraries, it is likely to break with
the updates, rather than the stability of the general system
(which I agree is very solid).
James