I haven’t used Mint. But heck but it is except for the time to set it up and test it. Plus, Linux is indeed more secure.
My laptop would be collecting dust right now or be recycled. I have replaced the battery and keyboard. Pretty cheap to maintain since it is an old laptop.
I still keeps on chugging along. Using it right now.
Mint is based on Ubuntu with a choice of several desktops. I like the Cinnamon edition. I don’t really like Ubuntu’s desktop but that’s just a preference on my part. Mint 13, which works with older computers, will be supported until 2017.
And yes, Linux is far more secure than Windows and that fact is even more evident since the NSA revelations. I do run some Windows programs on Linux under Wine.
I am never, never going to use Windows 8.