It’s not new that I really hate the Unity Desktop that Ubuntu‘s been shipping for some versions now.
Last October, I finally got fed up with it and began looking for alternatives. I really wanted to stay in the Ubuntu ecosystem, since my problem is really with the Unity Desktop and not with the ecosystem. So I chose Linux Mint.
For a month or so I used the Mate desktop environment. It’s quite fast and intuitive, but lacked some features, like the 3D environment. So when Linux Mint 14 was released, I switched to the Cinnamon Desktop, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s fast, has all the good features of Gnome Shell yet still using the desktop metaphor of Gnome 2.
I am now a happy camper. I (FEUP, really) even contributed to the Linux Mint Community with some official mirrors (for packages and Debian related files we’re the only mirror in Portugal). I am even considering basing FEUPlive in Linux Mint. Let’s see how that develops.