So, the long-term support on my Mint 10 appears to have given up - many of the depositories are unavailable - so I've bitten the button and installed Mint 13.
Anything to avoid the insane user interfaces that are Ubuntu Unity, Redhat/Gnome3, and Windows 8... (we don't even consider Apple!)
First impressions - very nice indeed. They've maintained - with the new Cinnamon desktop - the good bits of Gnome 2 and Windows XP/7 and the installation was straight-forward.
I still have my default applications to install, but that's never been a problem before so I don't expect any nasties.