I stopped distro hoping with NixOS. It’s been very stable for me and even in the few cases I had an issue is so easy to just restart on a previous generation and revert changes that it does not matter.

You said no ubuntu so here’s some debian distros ;) MX linux, Sparkylinux, LMDE, Q4OS

No seriously though, all of those have their fans and in my opinion deserve a look. MX linux has one of the better xfce setups out of the box imo, sparky has lots of cool DE packages, LMDE is mint but better-nt, and Q4OS is one of the few distros that includes an out of the box trinity setup.

As much as I dislike the lack of OOTB customization with cinnamon, I have not had any problems with Linux Mint. It is Ubuntu based but it’s one of those distros that slowly adopts new things ( Wayland still experimental ) to ensure they can make it functional, but things eventually flow to it.

I was gonna say something about MX, but I realized I only have experience with the version with Plasma. I’m sure the other editions are good too, but don’t take my word on it.

Nix

Gentoo, Arch, Debian, EVERY DISTRO!

Have you tried COSMIC yet? Maybe PopOS is worth a shot.

Some packages are a bit old at the moment but they have a release coming in April / May that will bring them right up to date.

Perhaps LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is worth a look as well.

Both options are similar in that they take a very stable distro base and layer on a quite up-to-date desktop.

They also feature clear direction and a predicable release schedule.

Debian/lxqt.

sorry. mine is an ubuntu fork that comes with gnome and I installed kde plasma. its possibly your worst nightmare.

Reliable, clear release/support schedule: Debian Stable

Unlike Fedora Spins, most upstream distros don’t come with a DE pre-packaged, you choose it during the install process (or install a custom one from other sources post-install).

DEs currently offered by the Debian Installer include: Xfce, LXDE, LXQt, MATE, Lomiri, and of course Plasma and GNOME.

Not in the installer, but in the repository: Cinnamon, Budgie, Enlightenment, FVWM-Crystal, GNUstep/Window Maker, Sugar, “and possibly others” (according to the wiki).

You can also do what I do on my less-powerful laptops and just install a window-manager and associated utilities—just make sure to uncheck all DE options during install (you will be forced to use the console until you have a display server and window manager, tho). Right now I’m rocking i3 on my laptops; I would use Sway, but for some reason it’s more resource intensive.

Other offerings in the repository include: Openbox, Fluxbox, Compiz, Awesome, dwm, Notion, and Wmii

My personal recs are i3 (and recommended packages), Xfce, or MATE. I’ve used and liked all 3. I still use GNOME for my desktop, but those 3 are what I go with otherwise.

Mint MATE

Any Arch/Debian. If you’re picking Distros based on which UI they package, you’re doing your self dirty by ignoring options that might be more what you want. You can always swap out the UI. It’s not a core part of most distros.

Reliable OS: Debian is the standard, or try Fedora if you want to get the latest software features

Alternate DE’s: xubuntu is a classic and it’s fast. LXQT is also lightweight but not as modern feeling imo. Debian install disks should let you choose either of those DEs (or some others) when installing

Debian + XFCE

Debian + Budgie

Linux Mint is not a “rando ubuntu fork”. It’s the most reliable OS for me, along Debian-Stable. It has prefs for almost everything, sane defaults, and a clear release and support schedule. And it uses Cinnamon. I’ve tried everything under the sun, I always come back to Mint. It works.

I’m honestly about to give popOS a try next. NixOS is great for a niche declarative use case, Debian and Ubuntu are cool. But the opinionated approach of POPos as well as default Nvidia and amd GPU support make it an attractive option to try.