big begginer distros

I wouldn't say that Mint is a 'beginner' distro. Sure, it's beginner friendly, but it's equally friendly for everyone. I've been a linux user for "a while" and currently I prefer Mint on my workstations. It offers me everything I need from a distro in a neat package and as I've been a Debian user since Potato it's a familiar environment.

But if OP want's somehting "more linux-y" then good old Debian should do the trick. Basically anything with decently long history besides Ubuntu (in it's current state) will do just fine.