Here's a classic average untergeek dilemma (don't tell me it's up to me: I know that).

In April 2018, Ubuntu will roll out its Unity-free 18.04 LTS. I hated Unity, fled to Linux Mint because of it, but now I kinda like Cinnamon (and now Cinnamon can be added as a DE to Ubuntu). Meanwhile, upgrading from LM 17.3 to 18.2 proposes to be a major hassle and a major hassle every new version thereafter.

Would you ...

1. Stay with Mint, upgrade to 18.2 to be able to get the latest software?

2. Go back to Ubuntu 18.04, install Cinnamon DE, and have your Ubuntu "Mintammon" 18.04, upgradable on a regular basis almost automatically?

Don't worry about data; my /home is in its own partition and I am assuming a backup of data and app lists for software I downloaded myself.

It's up to you.

Why do you think that upgrading Mint from 17.3, and future upgrades, will be a major hassle? Mint provides a good upgrade path and many people have done it. I don't see any difference in upgrading Ubuntu or Mint.

In saying that, I personally do a reinstall every major version as I like a "clean slate" from time to time, but there's no compulsion for me to do so.

If you love Cinnamon, you should probably stick with Mint, Cinnamon's home distribution.

Or, if you have some space, you could try both and see for yourself which do you want more. Since your /home is on a separate partition, it is not difficult to have a Mint/Ubuntu dual boot.

It depends how you define major hassle. I've been working on Linux systems since SuSE 7.2 and Debian Woody. No matter what happens it's not what I consider a major hassle.

Well it's up to you.

Mint is based off of Ubuntu, unless of course you select Mint DE.

Why are you looking forwards to April of next year, at this time?

When you cite "be able to get the latest software", what exact software are you concerned about?

I would stick with Mint. I became disenchanted, as you did, with Ubuntu years ago, mostly because of Unity.

I've been an Arch user since 2010, but if I had to pick between those 2 distros it would be Mint. It somehow just feels leaner.

Cheers.

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Personally. I would always run the latest and greatest - with a copy of at least one known-to-run-properly distro available just in case I mess up or things break. As for Ubuntu LTS vs Mint based on Ubuntu LTS, for me it's truly six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Debian. I did and while it took a little longer to get used to it it's been workling fine for me for years now.

I reinstall in case of switching from one release to another.
For eg,to switch from debian 7 to 8,I did a fresh install.

Your question is basically, should you stay with the equivalent to Ubuntu 16.04 (because Mint 18.2 is based on 16.04) or move AAAALLLLL the way up to 18.04.

Through a few years of constantly trying to have the latest and greatest I've upgraded / distro hopped countless times. I finally settled on an Ubuntu 16.04 minimal install with i3 window manager. I learned from this time what many have been saying. Don't upgrade just to upgrade. Make sure you have a reason. If that reason is you need the newest software, then upgrade. If it's because your current release will go eol soon, then upgrade. Don't do it just for the hell of it. If it works, don't fix it.

*Mint 18 and Ubuntu 16.04 are supported till April 2021. Plenty of time to decide, no rush.*

*Edit* Regardless of what you decide, you cannot go wrong sticking to the LTS releases of Ubuntu, or whatever release of Mint (think they are only LTS now). LTS is the only way to go in my experience if you have to rely on your computer for work / making money / less hassles.

My motto is fix it until it breaks

Thank you all. trying to respond to various counterquestions.

-- I define "hassle" as not being able to use the upgrade manager, such as to go from Mint 17.3 to Mint 18.1 (or 18.2) and instead having to do a data backup (which I have done, anyway ... 32 effing hours!) and a proggies backup (to come).

-- OK, clean installs scare me.

-- My reason to want to upgrade is to get new software. I like to download new stuff and I'm finding more and more stuff that is for LM 18 and not 17.

-- No one commented about Cinnamon on Ubuntu, BTW.

-- Dual booting Mint and LM ... wow! Dare I? I have a 100GB partition for the OS (currently taking up only 13GB), I guess I would have to split it in two. Yes?

Finally, yes, I know it's up to me, as I said at the outset. Thank your for your ideas.

You can upgrade Mint 17.3 to Mint 18, then Mint 18 to Mint 18.2.

https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2316

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3306

I understand the wanting to be current but the structure of having Long Term Support releases and normal releases and having to dist-upgrade causing issues.
It's why I now use Debian Sid on my PCs. It will probably break but the vast majority of my dist-upgrade issues (I do that every day or so) have been me not reading that things will be removed and having opted for dist-upgrade over upgrade in the first place.
I understand that Fedora is similar -- always up-to-date but with the odd glitch.
Try as many distributions as you can be bothered to.