I believe I could have perhaps, hacked the sources list, but the 'correct' debian sources for a given package are often a version or two behind the Ubuntu sources.
This is a desirable trait in a server. You keep behind everything by a version or two and you are essentially guaranteed more stability. Considering how Ubuntu 11.10 has run on my desktop, I would not want to build my business off it.
Mot vendors offer a PPA for easy integration with apt on debian. MongoDB, Maria/MySQL/Percona etc. This way your core system stays solid and well tested, but you can build your app layer using whatever version you want. It's definitely a win-win.
