I always recommend Linux Mint Debian edition. I don't use it, but I've had friends who've had good luck with it. Straight Debian is a great choice as well. If packages aren't new enough, you can always use testing and keep a really stable experience.

It honestly doesn't matter much which you pick unless you're using the absolute latest hardware or something. I personally use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, which has worked really well for me. I don't recommend it because there just isn't as much help available online specific to the OS, so I tend to recommend more mainstream distros. I used Arch for a few years before I switched, and Tumbleweed feels pretty much the same, but with less fiddling.

Anyway, regardless of what you pick, feel free to come back and ask questions. Most problems have similar solutions regardless of distro because Linux is Linux, so please don't hesitate to ask.