I run Linux as my primary at work. I’m currently on Ubuntu 12.10. My hardware is old, but it’s still pretty zippy. I’d prefer a mac, but I also like staying proficient with Linux.
Ubuntu is the most desktop packaged Linux in my opinion that is still powerful. It provides a lot of tools to simplify things such as 3D graphics drivers and stuff which make it easier with their software repos too to find the Linux version of software.
I ran Ubuntu as a primary on my laptop at home for a while before going back to 7. Just got tired of having to constantly search google to do things I could do without even thinking in Windows since I’ve been a Windows guy for so long. Not so much a fault of the OS as it was a fault of the users not wanting to bother learning to admin a new OS.
That and the “help” posts on most Ubuntu forums are really douchey. Lots of, “Oh, well you just haven’t ready the 1000 page documentation on that feature so fuck off noob”.
I would try the different Ubuntu releases as well. They have a gnome remix out now, and may have an xfce release too. I agree with boxxa. I never have software or driver issues with my machines. They work upon install and I’m always productive on it. The only other distribution I am considering trying is the latest Fedora.
Ya there is a lot of eCock’s going on with the linux community which is annoying. A lot of elite Linux people talk to new people trying to distro as a desktop alternative they really push away and not help which sucks for the community as a whole. It is built to be a n00bish distro and they really need to turn that community into one that helps users learn the system and can solve their own problems.
Fedora is getting pretty good. I noticed there is a lot more packages in there but I still find trouble and requiring more tinkering with it than Ubuntu when it comes to finding packages to do a task and from the last time I tried it, there wasn’t much done with the software repo’s other than a YUM GUI to help find new software. If I had some time, I always wanted to setup a Linux App Store style app but with my other projects, its really down on my list. I do use Fedora Remix on my Pi that I am building my music app on but it still is a little behind with the packages and more hackerish than a stable desktop.
No love for red hat? UB offered it as one of their distros for students, i didn’t care much for it being a big ubuntu guy haha
I dual boot win7 and ubuntu…def ditch windows 8 and use either 7 or ubuntu. I have noticed my SSD does take a bit longer to open chrome in ubuntu as well…
I’m not big in to apple, I was trying to get the misses let me build her a Hackintosh (shes a photographer), but she decided to grab a new iMac instead. It is a great machine, but I’m still just hesitant on apple. I use a lot of Unix at work, so its fun to be able to play with that on something thats not solaris haha.
I do give them a lot of credit for their fusion drive though, that’s a pretty awesome idea. I have a 250G SSD in my machine, but she goes through that much space in no time with all her shoots (especially weddings).