I suggest trying Debian with cinnamon desktop. It's my personal favorite for desktop usage.
Unless if we count for gaming.
I use it without almost any additional configuration on my laptop.
I searched on Google. There are at least 11 Linux distros based on Debian. Is there any real difference between any of these and Debian itself other than the apps that come with it? I assume the kernel must be identical.
My copy of Mint which I run under VirtualBox also comes with the Cinnamon desktop. Mate is available too.
Is Debian your primary OS, or do you only run it on your laptop for work?
I've never played a high-powered game under Linux (any distro), but I assume it must run like a beast, even on older machines. Just one thing -- do any of you guys know of a brand of gaming mice that supports Linux? This is the sad part. Due to lack of support a good gaming mouse with lots of buttons is about as useful as a cheap, basic mouse.