Here I'll share my experience with SolydXK, a Debian based semi-rolling release. I'll just try to keep it short but still providing enough info for you to have learned something from this. I think I've spent almost 2 weeks with this distro.

This is my first taste of Debian in general, so if I point out SolydXK has something, although it's obvious because it's a Debian distro, please excuse me.

So let's get started! First the installation...

The installation

I put the SolydXK Multi DVD ISO into an 8GB USB using this guide (which is my favorite guide BTW, as it's just a reference).

The installation was the most pleasant installation I've had of any Linux distro, even something like Ubuntu. Besides the fact it was clear on the choices' purpose, it looked nice and other things, most importantly of all for me is that it supported the dreaded b43 wireless card drivers, which is a huge plus for me cause I don't have Ethernet readily available. I had Ethernet while doing this though, and the fact it recognized it needed to install it was nice.

If I don't have Ethernet though I have on my USB some firmware files readily available to copy them where they need to go. :P

Kinda sad that it doesn't have a super minimalistic version, which my Arch Linux in me cries about, but I'm willing to live with it.

Here is a HUGE con with this one though, maybe will get fixed in the future, but it doesn't figure out there's other distros installed on the same HDD, and deletes the Grub entries for those (although the data is untouched).

The general experience

I would give this a very good rating. Nothing posed any problems really, yet.

To switch to the i3 window manager I just all I had to do was install it with # apt-get install i3 and choose it from the list of setups (at the screen where you're asked your password, one of top right icons). Very enjoyable.

It comes pre-installed with some stuff, Firefox, Thunderbird, Flash, Libre Office and some other stuff. Which is fine with me since I use all of those, it does have some other stuff I don't think I'll ever use though, probably.

The update manager is very nice. It just updated today (as I'm writing this) and it's nicer now, since the update manager got an update. :)

Final thoughts

Very nice. If you want a rolling release Debian, I'd go with this if I couldn't use Arch for whatever reason, granted I haven't tried other Debian distros.

BTW, I did not explain core mechanics that you've probably already read about, this is just to share my experience, not really a review or anything.