Which Linux distro to choose (except Ubuntu)?

I've been thinking for quite a while now about which distro should replace Ubuntu on my laptop... Although Unity is not as bad as I expected to be, it nevertheless is not for me! Big icons, menus always on top of the screen, difficult to customize... It reminds me more of Mac OS than Linux... Anyway... I did some search and downloaded the live CDs from Fedora and Mint. They both look very good if you, of course, don't select Gnome 3 as the desktop environment! I have two questions... 1) Is it true that Mint is based on Ubuntu and what does this mean for a user? If, for example, Canonical decides to do some serious changes in Ubuntu will these changes pass on to Mint as well? 2) I really liked Fedora (both KDE and Xfce). My only concern is if it's for really experienced users. Even though I consider myself as experienced (I've been using Linux for more than 2 years now both in my laptop as well as in my work), maybe that's not enough for Fedora!! Thanks!

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