Normally I have only good things to say about Ubuntu.
<rant>
About 2 hours ago I decided it would be a good idea to upgrade to the latest version of Ubuntu.
Now I think it was not my greatest idea. How does it take 2 hours to upgrade? Ridiculous.
Then there is the new user interface, no warning about it, nothing pops up to ask if you want it or tell you how to use it.
Maybe it is OK once you have got used to it, but it is the least intuitive thing I have ever seen. I couldn't even work out how to disable it without resorting to Google.
It seems to want you to launch applications by typing their name into a search box.
Anyway, back to the old user interface style and everything seems to work again.
</rant>

 

What were the two versions?

 

The upgrade was from 10.10 Maverick Meercat to 11.04 Natty Narwhal.
I've just realised there is an even more recent version 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.

 

I'll be interested in your review.

 

I gave 11.10 a two week trial...

Regardless of what great things some say about Unity, I hate it. It gets in my way and stays there. If I try to dodge left, so does it. Same to the right.

Until Unity is dumped, I've given up on Ubuntu. I am now running Mint 11. LOVE IT!

Mint 12 was released last week. Haven't had time to try it yet.

Edit: At least on Ubuntu 11.04 you could choose "Ubuntu Classic" prior to logging on and get the old Gnome 2 interface. But now you are forced to choose either Unity or a crappy implementation of Gnome 3.

 

How does it take 2 hours to upgrade?
</rant>

FYi, a new install is always faster than an upgrade. The time required to upgrade will depend a great deal on how many packages you have installed.

Depending on the computer (i have many), some times i will not upgrade. i'll just reinstall the new version/distribution over the old one and preserve the /home directories. This is *much* faster than an upgrade, and cleaner, too.

 

I am seriously considering Xubuntu instead now, sure they made one of the panels look a bit like the OSX Dock but you can easily get rid of that and create your own sensible one, if you don't like it.

Then everything looks pretty plain and quite similar to Gnome 2 again (or Windows, if you set it up that way)

 

Ubuntu 10.10 forever. I don't like Unity from the looks; I haven't tried it. Give me the conventional menu bar and cluttered desktop any day. It resembles my desk!

 

Ubuntu 10.10 forever. I don't like Unity from the looks; I haven't tried it. Give me the conventional menu bar and cluttered desktop any day. It resembles my desk!

The problem is 10.10 is only supported for 18 mos. with updates. So, forever=18 mos. from the launch date!

Try Mint. It is based on Ubuntu, but the developers seem to respect users like us more than Canonical does, especially on the Desktop.

 

The problem is 10.10 is only supported for 18 mos. with updates. So, forever=18 mos. from the launch date!

Try Mint. It is based on Ubuntu, but the developers seem to respect users like us more than Canonical does, especially on the Desktop.

Yeah, I'll consider that.

I did have a brief foray into Fedora, but I didn't really like it.

I've never tried Mint.