All though I have been using Solaris on SPARC boxes since 1997 when I started an ISP, I started with UNIX when I was part of the Interdata 8/32 team in 1977-8. I have tried diferant distros in the past, and not liked them,  including Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Gentoo which was a pain in the ass to configure. I have been using OpenBSD's Transparent Bridge for our firewall for about 5 years now..

I found LinuxMint through the Yocto project as I wanted a smaller custom OS with out go throgh Gentoo, as I build custom flight simulators, and have the need for embeded controlers..