Well, if it's for a quick and proper working experience, ie. you got not time to fiddle and twiddle around with it, then choose Linux Mint. Extreme fine-tuning can still be done afterwards.

But if you'd like to play around a bit more, then try one of the many toasts of <a href="http://linuxbbq.org" rel="nofollow">LinuxBBQ</a>. IMHO, the base Trollinger and its successor plus the XFCE-based varations should work best. Another valid option also would be <a href="http://crunchbang.org/" rel="nofollow">Crunchbang Linux</a>. 

Personally I'm using Linux Mint 11 on my workstation, and GNU/Debian 6.0 on my notebook. The latter one will probably soon be updated with LinuxBBQ or Crunchbang. If that works out well, my main system (first one, ie. the workstation), is going to be updated with one of them as well. Prolly with a XFCE base thou - so far that has been the best compromise between performance, proper window management and the regular windoze-ish interface we all learned to love. Or at least, not hate ;)

cu, w0lf.

ps: Screenshot of my current work enviroment: XFCE in black and some opacity: http://oxygenius.deviantart.com/art/Desktop-2013-07-26-388289571
pps: My regular IDE (Geany): http://oxygenius.deviantart.com/art/Current-favorite-source-code-editor-388286257