Mint (19.1 Cinnamon) strikes me as currently the best Linux distro (from those that I've tried). Of course, this is very much a personal opinion. I also use Ubuntu Studio (current 18.10), because of the low latency kernel. I use Windows 7/10 for work (that's what my customers use - I do IT support)....
My story of starting with Linux is boring - I was doing an IT course in 2008, and one of the certifications they were prepping us for was Comptia Linux+ - so I had to learn about Linux, for the very first time. I believe I started by installing Ubuntu 6 on my old laptop (still works!), although SUSE...
Hi forum - I'm also from Australia (so I fit nicely into this topic, hate to start a new one.) New to here, but only as a member (been reading the forum - usually when I have a problem - for some years.) Presently running Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon on a ThinkPad T430. This is dual booting with Windows...