Standard Linux mint is is Ubuntu based, LMDE is debian based. Completely different depending on the issues they had.

Edit: but also plenty of other Debian based distros, including Debian itself would avoid direct Ubuntu (Canonical) and Fedora (RedHat) influence.

There is a vast difference between a community driven project like Debian taking small contributions from people who happen to be in Israel/incorporating some things from RedHat after lots of vetting and diluting and Fedora being a direct upstream testing ground for RedHat who are the primary contributors and maintainers.

No, this type of approach will not lead to you throwing your PC in the trash, it will simply lead to you being more aware of your software and how it functions,what it contributes to, and what contributes to it. Which is a good thing imo.

For example, I use LMDE. Yes, there are most definitely contributions from redhat in my machine. the difference is between

RedHat engineers -> Fedora.

And

RedHat engineers -> Fedora -> Upstream Project acceptance-> Debian -> LMDE.

I’m not saying you need to stop using Fedora. But everyone draws a line somewhere and I’m simply making my knowledge on this known for people who’s line may be in a similar place to mine.

It’s worth noting that fedora is heavily sponsored by RedHat (a subsidiary of IBM) and is the upstream testing ground for RHEL (Redhats commercial offering). RedHat also has close ties to Israels government and it’s military.

This is a huge dealbreaker for someone like me so I feel it’s necessary to mention.

Linux Mint Debian Edition.

You say not to suggest mint, but you most probably used an Ubuntu based Mint so that doesn’t count.

Linux Mint Debian Edition.

Obviously you can’t completely rid yourself of all RedHat influence but Fedora is their literal upstream community testing ground and LMDE really does limit their influence heavily and that of Canonical (Ubuntu) by just building off of the more community based Debian (which Ubuntu built off of as well)

My only rule is that I won’t pirate it if I would otherwise buy it and not do without it. Either way they make no money from me, but sometimes after pirating I’ll want to actually buy it.