I use it in Cinnamon.
I use it in Cinnamon.
Before switching to LMDE, I did try just using Debian with Cinnamon, thinking it would be pretty much the same experience. I did not really enjoy the experience. There were too many niceties missing that I had taken for granted with Mint. I wasn’t interested in spending my time hunting down all the tweaks and packages to make those changes.
It’s been my default choice for years now, and I’ve recently switched to the Debian-based version. Couldn’t be happier.
I can recommend Linux Mint Debian Edition. It smoothes out a lot of the “sharp corners” of Debian and makes it more pleasant to use, IMO.
If any of you are in a position like, teacher, professor, IT… make sure you explicitly support Linux usage. Try hard not to require software that doesn’t run on Linux. I think this would help a lot.
I just switched from Linux Mint to Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE). I was feeling like you; wanting to get away from Ubuntu dependency. I tried out Debian, but it just didn’t feel as comfy out of the box. LMDE is working great. I even enabled backports and updated the Kernel.
Linux Mint Debian Edition. Second choice would be Fedora.