My experience has been that Fedora does better at "just works" than Ubuntu, over the working life of the installation. Ubuntu may install easily, but it builds up weird stuff over time - thing randomly crashing, stuff not working in weird ways after updates. Fedora just keeps on trucking.

+1 to Cinnamon - AFAICT it's the best way to preserve a classic desktop-style desktop, rather than having a desktop which is trying to be a giant mobile phone.