Well the super computer I work with uses redhat, so I tend to stick with fedora on my personal computer. It's also the most familiar for me to use. I have tried out a wide range of distributions when I first started using linux, but Fedora has always been a constant for me, so naturally I just stayed with Fedora after awhile.

EDIT

I now have a CentOS computer. So now I'm running both Fedora and CentOS. I'm a wee bit disappointed it doesn't have python3, but oh well. Most of my code is in C in any event.

Yeah, window placement shortcuts are awesome. Fortunately, Cinnamon has those by default: win+left = left half, win+up = upper half, win+left->up = upper-left quarter, win+up-up = maximised (etc. for left and bottom halves and quarters). Drag the window after shortcut placement, and it restores its previous size. What I'd really like though, is a clone of Divvy, a window management utility for OS X and Windows that I personally think is absolutely awesome (well worth the $14 it costs).

I had the idea to try building one myself in Python, but it seemed quite far beyond my abilities and understanding.

I tried installing Arch in a Virtualbox yesterday.
It's interesting.. it really made me flash back to those days when installing Linux made me consider ending my life.
Not quite sure if I'll stick with it or just take the easy way out, but it's definitely interesting.

Yes, the installation process is horrible. But it's part of Arch's KISS philosophy, so I guess it makes sense. Keep digging, at least you have to do this just once, and if you're following the Beginner's Guide in the ArchWiki, it should be quite doable.

Yeah the really basic steps are.. decently documented, although following the beginner's guide left me without the nano editor and I had to go to the install guide to find another step to install the basics that did include that editor.
And after the basic install they direct you to a general recommendations page which the beginner's guide claims has tutorials for installing the graphical doohickies which I haven't seen so far.
Which reminds me of the old days when Slackware would just sort of throw up its files onto your harddrive and let you figure everything out yourself :P

NeptuneOS. I use it for working. I like it because it really is Debian Stable, only with the latest KDE and marvellous font renfering. Indeed xD. I remember trying to install it seriously 3 times, all of them ending in some critical failure rendering my system unusable. I suppose that tech-savy users will have not problem with it, but for the mid-user it's really a time bomb.
Runs nicely while it lasts though.

One of the best parts of Arch is the wiki. I remember when I was still using Ubuntu or Debian, I'd often wind up at the Arch wiki.

As an information source it's very nice, but the tutorials leave a bit to be desired IMO.

THat would make a change seeing as the last time I looked at this linux stuff most of the information on dong things were rubbish and finding out how to sort problems ended up with having to search through lots of spammy forum threads

Very similar to mine. :-)

Arch64, with KDE or i3.

I also enjoy Debian, and have it in a less used PC.

Don't take me wrong. Arch Linux really isn't a distro for a Windows user who is thinking about moving to Linux. The installation process is very barebones and it expect you to know what to do.
What I meant was that its How-To is written in the way which just doesn't tell you type this and enter that but it makes a solid effort to explain you a princip, so you know why you are doing that and what else you could do.

I would say Ubuntu is pretty good for a newcomer, basically everything works out of box. The biggest pitfall is to not buy a PC/laptop with unsupported or badly supported hardware. That usually leads to the situation you are either lucky and find a magic tip or a freshly released driver or you have to start digging.

ArchLinux with Openbox.

Use Ubuntu for work and play. Programming and DB stuff. For gaming, Wine and whatever Linux native games (Steam/GOG/Desura/Humble etc.) I own.

Heard great things about Linux Mint and I'm still wondering about SteamOS for another gaming rig.

I currently have a small mixture, including Debian, Slackware and Ubuntu.

Ubuntu, basically for getting a system up and running for everyday use quickly, Debian for my less powerful machines, and Slackware for when I want to muck around with lower level stuff and development.

To derail this thread a bit, I am writing at the moment from a Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon Live System, booted from an usb stick.

Does anybody have some tips for partitioning 1TB of a 2 TB hard disk for a Linux Mint System? Size of /, /boot, /home etc.?

edit

will put up a question in the forum.