As far as I know Progeny 1.0 is made up of packages from Debian "testing" & "unstable" along with some snazzy install tools and "automagic" setting up of services and utilities.
I tried upgrading a Debian "stable" install to Progeny and was successful. While I did like the way certain things turned out I also found that the range of software was not as extensive as for Debinan "unstable" this, however, is a minor problem because you can apt-get install programs from the Debian "unstable" apt-get sources even though you are using Progeny.
All in all though I'm happier with "unstable" than Progeny just becuse I'm familiar with how it works and . . . well . . . because its Debian.
The fact that Debian is run by volunteers rather than a company and will be less likely to suffer the fate of companies like Stormix (which distributed the Debian-based Storm Linux before it closed up shop) may also be of interest to you--or it might not. Anyway, if you are willing to run Debian "unstable" you will probably not notice that much difference between Debian Debian and Progeny Debian. However, if you are running Debian "stable" moving to Progeny will give you a nice set of upgraded packages and more GUI eye candy and utilities.
PS: While the Debian installer has been criticized as being hard to use, in my experience it's really not that bad. Go to their website
http://www.debian.org and check out the documentation section for guidance and tips. I can't comment on the Progeny installer because I have not used it. Good luck with whatever you decide.