My favorite part about this post was how you derisively call people hipsters then immediately drop this gem:

That's some crazy cognitive dissonance there. Yeah, how dare people try to use/learn something different in a safe environment rather than subject their main box to the possibility of data loss over something they may well not find any practical use for. How dare they give up when they find almost every resource available on the internet is about as 'friendly' as you are! That attitude is EXACTLY why Linux on the Desktop will never truly go anywhere meaningful as people will perceive all Linux users as unnecessarily hostile dorks who are more interested in perpetuating their circlejerk than actually helping people learn. This comment in general is worse yet, because you're actually giving people shit for trying to teach THEMSELVES something. Then, when they run into a manpage that may as well be written in another language, they ask for help and they get a snide response. You are what's wrong with Slashdot. The fact you actually care about your fucking nerd-point count (karma) is telling enough as to what you're really here for.

It didn't really work in Die Hard 3 either. It was pancake syrup.

This needs a higher score than it has. Alas, I have no mod points.

A +1 Funny mod if I had the points, for one thing.

This is the type of answer I was looking for. Thank you. That's a SERIOUS thing to consider and I actually forgot all about that little 'issue.'

Submitter here. Remember that this is a question about an environment for a non-technically inclined person. Maybe as a qualifier, I should've said I have limited time to set this up for her, but I did say that I was comparing them based on the out-of-the-box experience.

So, to answer your question, Mint (and any out-of-the-box-ready desktop distribution) buys you the convenience of your computer 'just working' after OS installation. No drivers to install, no kernel rebuilding, no extra software to worry about (both Mint and its parent, Ubuntu, come with an office suite and almost every common utility a casual web user would ever need) - nothing. Install and go.

"Debian is a real PIA about binary kernel ethernet drivers." is an immediate deal killer there for just straight Debian. That's more work than I should have to put in for a machine that's more or less just going to be used as an appliance rather than a workstation.

Anarchism is so 1960s.

Century doesn't have any extant meanings other than 'one hundred consecutive years' and 'the name of a font type.' Anything else long fell out of use.

If you weren't anon, I'd mod this comment up so hard you'd get an orgasm that could be felt from across the world.

It doesn't. Decryption is done client-side.

Your encrypted data, you mean? I don't mind them selling my encrypted data, honestly. Would take more time to unencrypt it than it's really worth and they'd just lose money. Renting out those botnets DOES cost something and it'll take them a while to break AES128.

Case in point:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Glock_26.JPG

^ Plastic. Feels plastic. Not a cheap piece of shit.

And the ones that aren't lesbians are fucking crazy. That's animu for you.

...which would only be better if it had tits and were on fire.

Are you a wizard from the past?!