Which is just a re-packaged, slightly buggier Ubuntu...
Should've specified as a Mint Debian edition. The thing is wonderous.
except when then suddenly release an update pack that breaks the whole os, which is every update pack.
Just use debian.
I loved my debian and I still do. But the last hdd fail prompted me to try something new and I was very busy at the time. Naturally I wanted the OS to work 'just outside the box'. I'm reasonably satisfied with the Mint now.
Sort of.
I was thinking of going with Debian, actually. I don't know, it's been forever since I shopped around for a good Linux distro.
Debian is great so long as you don't require current versions of packages.
I've had a good time with Debian. One day I will go back to Debian...
I have had good luck with OpenSUSE. They package the latest stuff (I am on kernel 3.7.10 now). They're also very community-focused.