I think I've heard/read the name Ducknote once and Monero is so far the number 1 Cryptonote coin out there.
So I would say Monero for now, the coin has a great community, great devs, no premine/instamine, good distribution and quite a lot of haters here as you might have seen in this subforum.
It's already pretty popular even without an official GUI wallet and therefore hard to use for the average Joe. A lot of haters talk about the blockchain bloat but in my opinion it isn't a big issue because it simply isn't, also in the future people will use light wallets anyways.
And IIRC blockchain bloat is already reduced quite a lot and will be reduced more in the near future.
Yeah i've seen a lot from the monero community (both good and bad but in general enthusiasm) - I think this alone ensures there's momentum enough to iron out any sticking points like the bloat. Plus as you say, a bloat is not like a 100% premine, so not point in worrying about it fundamentally.
As for ducknote, it's interesting you haven't heard anything much about it - the community seems pretty enthusiastic too, not to mention somewhat better natured in discussions here than some posters in the monero threads. I've compared the spec from ducknote and monero, but arrived at the conclusion that each is pretty stable long-term... am I missing something do you think?
Any ducknote community members able to comment too?