I've switched all my desktop/laptop installs to Xubuntu. All you need to do is "sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop" and you get a nice, fast, clean desktop. It's also easy to switch back to Ubuntu and, as it's just a remix of Ubuntu, 99% of all the packages just work, support documentation is still valid and practically shares the same user base.
Xubuntu is still lead by Ubuntu though and it currently uses upstart. I'm not sure if Xubuntu will use Mir in the future.
I second Xubuntu. Still the distro I use on my linux machine to this day. I actually tried Linux Mint Debian Edition. I think the two main things that turned me off were its inferior support for particular third-party programs (I think they were Skype or Wine), and its general feel (font and window management seemed rough).
This was about a year ago I think, so YMMV
Xubuntu here as well, it runs great without causing you any hassle, like Ubuntu with Unity does. The UI doesn't change a lot and you know exactly what you're getting.
A Linux distro with no local man pages? Seriously? I sometimes use my laptop in places that don't have wifi. Not to mention the fact that the online manpages may become out of sync with upstream, or that the online manpage may describe a different version than what you have installed locally, e.g. if you're using an LTS version that's years old...
Xubuntu is still lead by Ubuntu though and it currently uses upstart. I'm not sure if Xubuntu will use Mir in the future.