I wouldn't go as far as to say one is superior to the other they both have merit, I have a long history of traditional art and then began digital art about 8 years ago and I would say that having an understanding of art is of course a must and traditional skills such as sketching and painting translate to the digital medium.
I'd say it's easier to have a background in traditional then begin digital but ultimately especially these days it's just as easy to go straight into digital I for one work almost entirely in digital but I always have a sketch book close by when I travel.
I first began using just a mouse and it's difficult but using a tablet is a must if you want to take digital painting further and more seriously, the amount of freedom it gives you is very nice but it takes a little getting use to but now I can't live without it

Digital also has other advantages such as speed, depending on how you work you begin to learn new techniques and short cuts that help create images, some people paint digitally much in the same way they would traditionally whilst other prefer to use more photo and texture reference's to create images and there is no right or wrong way of doing it.

Ow yeah and I use CS4