I went with Ubuntu cause name recognition, and I've tried it in the past lol. Basically half assed the entire thing.

No you didn't. If you're new to this, you did your best and went with the most well-know thing you don't know much about yet.

Ubuntu is fine. And I'm sure you've already put a few hours into configuring it at this point, so don't waste the partition. I'm just pointing out - and possibly for others reading this thread - that if you're used to Windows and you like the Windows UI paradigm, Cinnamon (the desktop environment in Mint) might be for you.

You can probably install Cinnamon as a secondary desktop environment in Ubuntu too, in fact, if you want to give it a go. If you install another desktop environment / window manager in Linux, don't worry, you don't lose anything: you're simply presented with an option to choose the one you want in the greeter (login screen).