Heh...Debian isn't for "Linux newbies looking to throw something on their PC at home". Its been around forever (early 90s) and is really for advanced Linux users. I've been using Debian for almost 12 years and love it. Ubuntu is nice too, they're both for totally different crowds. Personally when I install Linux I prefer to start with the base OS - kernel, drivers, the standard GNU package, and thats about it (Last time I did this it was a ~128MB install) - then I add packages as I need them (apt-get is so nice).

Anyway it sounds like you're more interested in Ubuntu. Debian's website has been the exact same since the late 90's - I don't personally feel that having an old fashioned looking website says you don't care, especially considering Debian has one of the largest collection of package maintainers out of any Linux distribution (probably trumps Ubuntu also).