I believe the current situation covers quite well the stability spectrum:
gNewSense is based on Debian stable (at the cost of having rather dated versions of the programs): http://gnewsense.org Trisquel is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian testing (so its programs are a little more dated than those in Debian testing but it is more stable). Parabola is based on Arch, a rolling-release distribution, and is cutting-edge (latest versions of the programs at the cost of stability): https://www.parabolagnulinux.org
I do not really know what you mean by "Ubuntu is becoming more and more like Windows and Apple" but I do not think it affects Trisquel in any way. Ubuntu is a Trisquel's base in the sense that the vast majority of the packages in Trisquel's repositories come from the Ubuntu repositories. Only free software package are copied though. Ubuntu's default install does not influence Trisquel's default install.
