I’ve been using Linux as my primary desktop for quite awhile. Over the years I’ve used Mandrake, Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian and now Linux Mint. Mint is a Ubuntu derivative which makes it part of the Debian tree in Linux. A bit over a month ago I gave my four year old MacBookPro an upgrade to Linux. I installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and eventually decided to try Linux Mint 18. I really like the Cinnamon desktop on Mint. It’s very intuitive and it makes using Linux on the desktop a snap even for a veteran user. I have a young friend who has had to rebuild his Windows 10 computer twice in the past few months due to malware problems and I think Linux Mint would be just the ticket for him. I’m also donating a spare laptop to an older friend and I’m giving that to her with Linux Mint installed.
Phil Shapiro recently told me that Steven Vaughn-Nichols wrote that Linux Mint was his favorite Linux desktop and I can see why.