I got tired of the desktop wars, after unity and then mint trying to fill the void. I've spent a lot of time with both, but decided to go a different direction with archlinux. All you get is a base system. Anything you want, you will have to install and configure it. Yes, it's a lot of work. It took me a whole day to get my system where i wanted it.
The pros: you learn much about the nuts and bolts of linux, Arch's repos are the most complete I've used so far in my years of open source usage, you get a system just the way you want it.
The cons: It is a lot of work, you need to be proficient on the command line, you need some understanding of whats needed to get a desktop computer to your liking.
Don't let the cons stop you though. you can definitely learn as you go. I spent much time with web searches and reading the archlinux wiki while setting up my PC and laptop. I did the laptop first and found that getting the wireless to function the way that i'm familiar with was challenging. The important thing about this very manual setup is to be patient and keep reading. Things won't always go right, so you'll likely be searching for a solution to an error you got during your process.