Need advice Distro needed, no gaming needed.

I'm going to echo booman on asking for the specific laptop model. Almost all newer laptops do not have BIOS anymore, but UEFI, which is a replacement of the old BIOS. The boot process is also different. When you install a distro such as Linux Mint, it will automatically detect if you have a BIOS or UEFI system, so you don't really need to worry much about it. However, there are a few things you need to be aware of, so if you post the laptop model then I can do a quick search to find out which it is.

Basically, if you have a UEFI system you need to disable a few things in the UEFI setup (which mostly looks identical to the old BIOS interface). A little tip, the most typical keys to enter the BIOS/UEFI setup screen is from my experience is:

F2 or the Delete key. With most newer laptop you need to start pressing it immediately after it boots. However, it could be that your laptop have another key, so trying out the difference F- keys might be necessary.

The only laptop I have is an ancient Dell which hasn't come out of its carrying case in years. I'm so lame that I don't need a laptop, I have a Lenovo Ideacentre K430 desktop.
I'm in the process of building a new standard architecture desktop, I have the new PSU for it, but searching for a mid tower case that will fit this longer than standard Firepower Silencer 600 power supply into the top of is APITA. I seriously want to avoid having to use tools to mod the case. Been there, done that, don't wanna repeat the work.
Any suggestions for a case that will fit this PSU GLADLY accepted!

Thank you for the idea to use the F12 key(a half second after hitting the Power button) to get into BIOS before booting, it worked! Don't think I can tell the BIOS to boot the Flash stick, but I haven't given up.

Candidly, I have no issues with paying for a Distro on CD-ROM. I would trust it more than a disk I burn myself. And I'm out of blank CD-ROMs.
Thank you all for your help and patience!

My friend Mr C used a booting menu that I couldn't find to boot Mint 14.2 Cinnamon. Amazing! Of course the operation stopped quickly because of some kind of block error that we don't have a clue how to address. But it was really nice to see Mint start up! Never fear, I'll get off of my lazy butt and buy those Mint CD-ROMs.

Thanks for the assistance all y'all!

Oops, that was Mint 17.2, even though "17.3" was iso'd onto the thumb drive. A bolder shade of green would be better but nonetheless it WAS Mint. At least until the bottom of the first page when the block error stopped it loading. I overlooked a BIOS option on the Lenovo 'cause it "didn't look serious," fwiw.
Thank you all so much for the help!

I just googled, and your Lenovo seem to have a UEFI motherboard. So you need to make sure to Disable two option within the UEFI setup, Secure Boot and Fast Boot. As long as Secure Boot is enabled, you will not be able to boot anything else than Windows. Fast Boot is a windows only feature. It will cause data loss if dual booting with Windows and Linux. I am honestly not sure if there are any adverse effects when booting only Linux, but better safe than sorry so just disable Fast Boot.

Although if you got as far as seeing the Mint logo, then I am not sure. Buying a Mint disc is not going to solve this problem, so you can save that money and instead try to look into why the booting failed. In any case, I'd suggest first making sure the two options I mentioned above are disabled.

Thank you, Daerandin! Who knew I had a UEFI mainboard? Not me, shuh. Come to think of it, no BIOS company's logo was ever seen on the screen, duh. I did disable Fast Boot just 'cause I thought it would be a good idea. "Secure Boot--Disable it," is noted, thanks.

I'm really concerned about being able to boot into Linux on my new machine. It'll be Standard Architecture, let's hope that it'll be easier than this Lenovo thing.

UEFI is the new standard, but I suspect that legacy support will be available in most motherboards for years still. Most Linux distros will handle the details automatically for you so most users don't need to worry about it. Since the whole idea with UEFI is to replace the BIOS, it might be a good idea to get familiar with it. As it is now, there should not be any issues with Linux and UEFI. It has been fully supported for several years.

The big difference is that with UEFI you must have a UEFI bootloader installed on the EFI partition. The EFI partition must be with the FAT32 filesystem, and it is usually around 500mb in size, although it is possible to have it smaller. On a dual boot environment, all installed OS's must share the same EFI partition.

But as I said, with most distros, all the details are handled for you so you probably would not notice a difference.

Thank you Daerandin!
Weird, FAT 32 in Windows land is SO yesterday, this makes booting even more complicated. Goody!
I haven't seen an option for legacy BIOS in my ""BIOS.""

I believe the reason that FAT32 was picked as the standard for the EFI partition was simply to make it widely compatible. However, these details will happen "under the hood" so to speak when you are using Mint, so you don't need to worry about it. As long as you have Secure Boot disabled, you should not have any problems booting the Mint ISO. If you are still experiencing issues, then just post about it and I am sure we can figure it out.

Thank you all very much, I'd be nowhere without you all!

Can't find the Secure Boot option in the UEFI argh, and now the UEFI beeps every time I start up. I guess changing things in "BIOS" has always been mysterious, at least for me. Mr C to the rescue, it'll take a while.

I've been sick and discombobulated lately, more confused in general than I usually am. I tried to respond yesterday but my password line was blank and I couldn't find it in AOA history. I asked for it to be emailed but it didn't come. Thank you for taking care of the prob on this site's board, assuming that it was the Irreverent Query Chairman's action that did it. Thanks!

I want Mint on a brand new machine and haven't ordered it from a local assembler yet, I finally decided to not build it myself. When I'm sure I can afford it I'll order it. Thanks to you all for your help and patience!