It's been one week - Which OS for me?

So as of around 8pm last night, I have had Linux installed for exactly one week! May sound odd but that is the longest time I've ever kept a Linux install on any of my systems.

Since I'm far from versed on Linux, there have been the odd thing I had to boot back into Windows for, but for the most part I have spent most of my time within Linux (Mint).

But this brings me to Ubuntu and choosing an OS.

Since I am still a Linux newbie, I do not want to dual boot between two Linux versions (Mint & Ubuntu) which is what I'm doing now (with Windows 7).
I'd rather have one fully customized to my liking while learning all the ins and outs of the OS.
So a week ago I installed Mint 11 and was quite content in sticking to it, but when the release of Ubuntu 11.10 alpha 3 was announced, Ubuntu once again peaked my interest.

I'm quite aware of the controversy surrounding the new Unity and gnome 3 in Ubuntu 11.04. Being relatively new I know I could adapt fairly easily to either.
I did find with Unity, it became an annoyance the launcher popping up every time you moved your mouse near the left side of the screen.

I don't mind gnome 3, unfortunately 11.04 doesn't come with it by default.

Something that did bother me was right clicking and adding files & folders to the desktop.
When editing videos, pictures and files I like to put them on my desktop for easy access.
For whatever reason both Unity and gnome 3 didn't allow this.

Fortunately the work around was to install a small program called Tweak Tool (gnome), which you should find in the package manager of Ubuntu.

I know that it works quite well within gnome 3, I can't say whether it works within Unity.

Back to Mint...I must say I really like Mint! Although I don't find Ubuntu all that slow, I do find it to be slightly slower then Mint.

I suppose my only real concerns regarding Mint are:
1. How is the community backing of Mint?
2. What desktop will Mint 12 have? I'm not sure of the release dates, so I probably wouldn't have to worry for some time.

I guess with #2, it's more or less why adapt to the gnome 2 look when they will go with gnome 3 in their next version.
Plus in October when Ubuntu 11.10 is released, I've read they will either include or give the download option for gnome 3 (shell).

So if you were in my position, a Linux newbie looking at Mint 11 or Ubuntu 11.04, where would you go?