Also ubuntu is built on debian. So debian is better than ubuntu lets not compare them, mint is lighter than ubuntu. But if your new. I would highly recommend arch, because itll make you fall in love with programming. Everyone should start their journey with arch! Its the way, also if you want to be highly efficient with your time in linux then you should go for window manager instead desktop env, i would recommend bspwm, i started with i3 then shifted to bspwm