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Fedora, Debian (if you still want to use apt) or OpenSUSE.

Ubuntu as an end-user OS is fine, this discussion is specifically for servers. I personally use Mint though, purely for the Cinnamon GUI. Mint is basically Ubuntu underneath so there's no reason to switch.

I've been using Elementary OS for a year or so. Yes, it is based on Ubuntu, but I find the desktop env much nicer.

Arch

I haven't used Arch in years, but I'm pretty sure it qualifies as a minimalist distro.

But isn't that what OP was asking for?