openSUSE 13.1: Recap! Codecs required a little work to get working. Still, probably at least 50 times easier than older distros from a few years back. But still, harder than it should be in 2013. This stuff just worked in Linux Mint. This is a long term supported release…at least 3 years. After installing…some applications required me to manually add them into menu.
So I intend [at least initially] to primarily run a Linux Mint LTS. A new one should be available in a few months. The 32 bit version now requires PAE mode which will access more memory. But I will continue to update and play with openSUSE 13.1 as a fall back option for Linux. This will allow me to be more comfortable with it should the need arise to switch. As far as a skill, knowing openSUSE is probably more valuable than knowing Linux Mint.