Newbie: What would I lose by leaving Ubuntu for some other distro?

My friendly suggestion is: "computer software like Fine Wine ... let it age."

In other words, stay a little bit back from the bleeding-edge, so as not to cut yourself. Get a stable-for-you version of "the distro that you already have," and stick with it. The grass won't be greener in another pasture. Another distro could well be running the exact same code and therefore crash for the exact same reason.

Originally Posted by Randicus Draco Albus My Debian installations take about the same amount of time.

My netinstall definitely does not. It is not difficult, but it takes longer and more thinking. First install the basic system, then dselect (without GUI, I don't want Gnome), then downloading a GB of packages including KDE.

But that is the difference between a customizable installation and a pre-cooked one. And I don't like the pre-cooked Debian, Mint is much better at it.

That having said, for my production machines I do prefer Debian. For quick and dirty and newbie installations LMDE is better IMHO.

jlinkels

Originally Posted by sundialsvcs ... bleeding-edge, ...

My experience with Debian is: stable (= limited, boring, less.) Testing (= more available and stable.) Experimental (= even more, fun, forget about hardware warranty, must fix things.)