I chose Linux because Microsoft were making Windows too expensive to own legitimately; and rebuilds would take all day. Never a fan of corporations (company ethos, rather than products) I came over to Linux full time, about a decade or so, ago. I could get a distro on, patched and apps installed in less than two hours; and partitioning the /home directory meant not needing to shift data off the system to do it, either.
I was a fan of Ubuntu until Netbook Remix became Unity. I didn’t like it. Having said that, I did try; I even have the now defunct Ubuntu Phone. Given previous failed efforts at a unified interface/system that spanned desktop and mobile, I wasn’t surprised when Unity was ceased. It’s a tough nut that is difficult to crack.
For some while I was using Mint and settled there, but packages and drivers are a bit behind, and eventually I had to shift back to the Ubuntu fold, particularly for Steam gaming; but Gnome 3 isn’t to my taste. Hence I’m now hoping that Mate will be my new forever distro. Finding it a little hard going as I chose 17.10 rather than LTS, so I’m having a few issues. (for some reason, on 17.04 I went to Firefox, show all downloads, open containing folder, and then Firefox would hang, so I tried 17.10)
So for me, Mate is a nice interface, with a reasonable balance of good looks against performance, and is reasonably up to date.