Welcome to the club :)
Not had any major package problems myself with ubuntu yet in 3 years use (except 64bit + blitzmax) and i wouldnt class what i do as 'basic' use.
The only real problems i have had in general has been with getting DRI going on the occasional graphics card, 1 crap wireless card and an old webcam.
Fedora, however is a different story, its quite a bit more fiddily. (but is more suitable for my personal needs so im using that at the moment)
The rest of my problems were because i didnt know what i was doing.
Not had any major package problems myself with ubuntu yet in 3 years use (except 64bit + blitzmax) and i wouldnt class what i do as 'basic' use.
The only real problems i have had in general has been with getting DRI going on the occasional graphics card, 1 crap wireless card and an old webcam.
Fedora, however is a different story, its quite a bit more fiddily. (but is more suitable for my personal needs so im using that at the moment)
The rest of my problems were because i didnt know what i was doing.