Depends. If you want to stay as close to Ubuntu as possible, but with less nonsense, go for Mint. If you want to go closer to Debian, go for Mint Debian! If you really want change, go for Fedora. Most good innovations come from Fedora.

No. We don't fear change. I, for one, *love* getting my fingers on the latest Ubuntu. But Unity truly sucks. Nothing is obvious. Nothing is one-click any more. Switch active window? Two moves + two clicks. How is that good? And again, no. Classic desktop is *not* a viable alternative in Ubuntu as it's getting axed in the next version, so by using it, you're lulling yourself into a false sense of security. But, as it's Linux we're talking about, we still have a great alternative, and it's called Mint. During this month, we're getting Mint 11, which means Ubuntu 11 without the nonsense.