It seems a lot of Ubuntu users are moving to Mint, since Distrowatch has just
moved Mint to their #1 spot. When their tweaked Gnome 3 extensions are released,
perhaps Unity will be a moot point? Linux has been about choice and I will see
if their new Mint holds some hope, since I, like you have many systems that are
not up to these 3D GUI eye candy desktops. However, Ultimate Linux was able to
give me some eye candy with only a 64-MB VGA card.

Distrowatch rankings are meaningless by their own admission. It is just
based on page hits which means simply that more people are curious about
Mint. It does not mean that they are downloading and installing Mint or
that Mint is more popular. Everybody knows about Ubuntu which translates
into little curiosity. Few Ubuntu users go to Distrowatch. They get the ISO
directly from Ubuntu. Any 12 year old can manipulate DW standings and we
need to be careful about giving them any credibility. A few years ago
PCLinuxOS said that it was ahead of Ubuntu. Now it is in 7th place. They
failed to deliver.

Any statistics by independent sources do not even rank Mint as near the
top. You have to remember that Ubuntu is fragmented among all of the
*buntus. Fedora is much closer to Ubuntu's numbers than Mint by real stats.
Mark Shuttleworth has said from their statistics Ubuntu 11.04
was their biggest release to date and a big increase over previous
releases. They do not see any drop off in downloads or in use. (11.10 is
too new to be included).

Mint needs to deliver. We do not need hype. People should not base their
distro choice on DW standings or popularity of any kind but on their needs.
Use what you like even if it is in last place.

What is happening is a separation between Mint and Ubuntu that will mean
they will have to develop their own community. For a long time they have
been able to join with Ubuntu users, but with Lisa, Mint will be based on
GNOME 3 and not use Compiz and have little in common with Ubuntu. The
things that they will want to know won't be in Ubuntu forums and vice
versa. That will be interestig to see how it sorts itself out.

Interesting:
distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20111107#news

Perhaps I am not a power user , but I am very happy with Linux Mint 11
(Katya) ,but so I am with Lubuntu 10.4,which I use (dual boot) on the same
desktop PC and also on an old P4 -512MB laptop and an Asus eeePC901 .
So far I have not have had 'any' problems with any of the above Linux
installations.
Recently I did run Ubuntu 11.10 live on the desktop PC and I am impressed.
Possibly I shall replace the Lubuntu 10.4 ( on the desktop PC) with Ubuntu
12.4 (LTS) .........wait and see first.

Users like you -- ie. happy with their installation -- should be cautious
for a few reasons. Installations can go wrong. Things you currently use may
be no longer available. It is a time of flux with two new desktop
environments which both have some growing pains, Unity for Ubuntu and GNOME
3 for Mint. The final consideration for Mint users is that there is no
upgrade tool. You can sort of do one in a roundabout way, but Mint advises
a clean installation. I have used the roundabout way in Fedora with little
success, but have not upgraded Mint.

We often get excited when a new version comes out but that does not always
translate into a better experience for users because we are all different
with different needs and levels of frustration.

Normally, when embarking on a new version of any distro , I do a fresh
installation following downloading the iso and burning a CD/DVD, all this
after saving the /home directory to an device external to the relevant
machine. As per the advice given universally via any NG
Perhaps I have been lucky , but learned early that nvidia graphics cards
are OK and I prefer Intel processor/chipsets .
The beauty of distros enabling live mode is that one can check suitability
prior to installation.
To me the distro itself is not all that important provided it is based on
Debian with its excellent installation routines ie synaptic or equivalent
and CLI's apt-get (especially the latter)
With a Gnome desktop one can download/use KDE apps and vice versa.

You are kidding, right? :-) You would actually sell the Ubuntu Upgrade as
something good? Have you ever looked at the Ubuntu Forum complaints after
upgrades come out? Great way to break your machine. I've yet to see any Ubuntu
forum staff actually recommend an upgrade, they always recommend a fresh
install.