I hate to say it to you guys but Linux Mint is really just about the desktop and their initial setup of Ubuntu.

I personally care about unique and usable distributions:

• Ubuntu (Really excellent foundation for a stable Desktop)
• Debian (Rock solid but can be dated for Desktop)

There are unique distributions but not usable for doing work like programming full time and other things:

• Arch Linux (I personally not comfortable updating this distro)
• Gentoo (I am not high to actually use this distro)