I switched back and forth between Fedora, Ubuntu, Scientific Linux, Mint, Lubuntu, and Xubuntu.
I put Xubuntu on everything that I don't intend to run Windows on now because it's got a basic window manager, a fairly small list of default programs, and uses ubuntu's debian repositories because they're more popular and up to date than most other repositories. I can't be bothered to compile stuff from source although I do if I have to. Being able to use apt-get and get most software I need is a plus.
I currently have a car computer running Xubuntu with a USB GPS that works pretty well. I also have a few live CDs and run it in a VM at work for data recovery. I also keep it around so I can run Octave (I misplaced my MATLAB license) and elinks without having to deal with cygwin and to communicate with serial devices at a very low level using cutecom.
Good luck with your distro search.