I was actually a Xubuntu user for a long time, but tried Mint with Cinnamon, and found lots of things much easier and more polished, while maintaining the lightweight feel that XFCE provided.

I find that installing things from repos you typically get something far more up to date with Ubuntu than Debian.

I’ve been a Linux user since installing Slackware from floppy discs. These days I run Mint on my desktop/laptop and Ubuntu on servers. Does this make me weak?

Hikvision also has some serious baggage from the Chinese govt. Hanwha is really good stuff, South Korean, a spin off from Samsung.