I used Ubuntu in my college for some light programming and felt really happy about it.
I am more interested in switching to Debian 12 than Ubuntu, since the former is really stable. Also, I came to know installing Debian is easier since it supports non free firmware.
I would seriously look a a distro that is a little more desktop oriented like Mint.Straight Debian needs a lot of work after installation before its really nice as a desktop solution, out of the box it does make a great server however.