I am re-opening this Thread, perhaps for a relatively short period of time, if the OP does not respond, in order to address what I believe to be some inaccuracies in one part of the input provided by Members, for the benefit, I hope of the many, not the least, the OP.
#36 on page 2 was provided by good Member Harald
@h2-1 , and while I put a Like on it for the general thrust of the Post, I believe it is wrong with his assessment of LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition).
He said
Don't use LMDE, it kind of will offer the worst of both worlds, only for people who need that type of rolling release mint.
... and that is not correct.
LMDE has not had an element of rolling release, and that was
semi-rolling release, since the un-named version 1. That was based on Debian Testing, but since version 2 'Betsy' released in 2015, it has been based on Debian Stable.
I began my experiences with LMDE with Betsy in 2015, and since then, I have included it as an integral component in my stable (currently numbering 78 Linux), and thus have used Cindy, Debbie and now Elsie.
In that seven years plus, I have not had one single glitch or problem with LMDE. In my opinion, it is as user-friendly and beginner-friendly as another Debian Stable based distro, namely the MX-series, which I have had equally as long.
Further, should Ubuntu ever, for whatever reason, go belly up, Mint CEO Clement Lefebvre has simply to steer a slightly alternative course in his business model, and continue operations with LMDE.
Cheers, and it's Friday in Oz, so
Avagudweegend
Wizard