Actually, the packages in Debian Testing and Unstable branches are usually the same versions or more recent than Ubuntu.

The names sound scary, but I think Ubuntu actually takes the Testing packages anyway. In 8 or 9 years I don't recall having any problems using Testing as my day to day desktop.

Unstable is also pretty solid, but every in a great while there will be some dependency problem or other breakage that can be a real PITA. It's fun to play with new features, and I use it for one of my home laptops, but I wouldn't use it to get work done, just in case.