I used to be an Ubuntu & Linux Mint fanboy, but I am all Fedora these days, baby! And if you don't like GNOME, Fedora makes it pretty easy with Package Collections to install LXDE, MATE, Cinnamon, etc. I really don't know why people complain about systemd or SELinux. For systemd, you'll only need to use "systemctl status/stop/start X" and hostnamectl or read the nice Wiki page on how to create a service. For SELinux, just realize that it's all about labels. For samba shares, stamp folders/files with a special label; for root/home, stamp folders/files with a special label. The main reason I switched is stability. Eventually, my Ubuntu or Mint install would start getting glitchy from updates (just standard "apt-get update/upgrade", no "dist-upgrade"), and I'd have to find the problem and downgrade/remove it. The main glitches for Fedora are in GNOME, not the underlying system. As far as old computers, I use SliTaz or Lubuntu.