So, yesterday I switched my systems back to Ubuntu proper. The purpose was mainly to clean up my installs from all my messing around. I had originally installed both systems as Ubuntu. Then I ran some command string I found on the web that removed Unity and installed the standard Gnome3 desktop environment. And after that I ran another super-duper command to switch those to Xubuntu without reinstalling. Then I decided I would like to go back to Ubuntu. So I did a super-duper command to do that!
But after all that messing around, I was sort of longing for a fresh install. This was particularly appealing since my last command to switch these systems back to Ubuntu caused me to be unable to login to the GUI. I figure it was just too much messing around with various config options in /etc with regards to the various desktop environments. So clean installs were in order.
At any rate, the primary reason for going back to Ubuntu in the first place was… to run the most popular version of desktop Linux. Along with that (in theory) comes the best support. Both in terms of available software packages and in terms of community resources. And also to deliberately divorce myself from the idea that one is someone cooler and more “hip” if they run a more difficult flavor of Linux.
The thing about Ubuntu… it’s pretty much the same under the covers as any of the other Linuxes. If you take away the desktop environment and installed apps… the various distributions are very much alike. Particularly those that are all derived from the same origin (like Debian).
I suppose it would be nice to run a distro that defaults to a desktop environment that I like. But in recent years I’m learning that it’s often times better for me to just adapt to the software I’m using, and yield to the design preferences of the developers rather than trying to force the software to adapt to my preferences by reconfiguring it all the time.
I figure I can live with Unity. I don’t know why not. And I can certainly install and remove any packages I choose. So I don’t see a problem.