I'm actually a returning LM user. My given name is Sean but the rest of the world knows me as digimaus (or hausmaus depending on where you know me from). It's been a long time since I've tried Linux Mint and I decided to give it a try today since I was unable to go to work. I have to say I'm very impressed with the quality and fit that LM has compared to many other distros, including the one it's based on. I tried installing Ubuntu 10.04 and as soon as it was done installing, the silly OS crashed on me by ejecting the CD before fully shutting down and then spat out about 100 I/O errors before freezing. Needless to say, LM didn't do that. FWIW, I'm running LM9 on a Dell OptiPlex GX260.
Running LM so far has been a very pleasant experience--especially when I installed two of my favorite programs that before took hours of compiling and tinkering to work but now install with a single click--and I look forward to continue to use LM. I'd like to be a contributing forum member also once I get my Linux skills back up to speed.
--D