12.04 upgrade broke my Ubuntu

After debating for months whether I should update from 10.04LTS to 12.04LTS, I finally decided to take the distro upgrade route because that has worked for me before.
I've installed 11.10 on a netbook before and quite liked it, but I'm afraid Unity has broken my installation and I'm being forced to downgrade to a fresh install of 10.04 again.
10.04 "just worked" for me - I was able to get important applications working, I had it themed to my liking, and it ran quickly on my elderly 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 2G RAM desktop computer.
Unity trashed all that, and seems more difficult to work with on the desktop with a 17" CRT monitor because the dash is always there. I know you can set it to auto-hide, but that's what I had Docky doing before I upgraded.
I still love Ubuntu and the community it fostered, but I think 10.04LTS is what I will be using for the foreseeable future (or until I purchase a new PC).

RoyJ

Firstly: Woooah! Iwas just talking to my OH about Max Headroom.

Secondly: Two issues I can see straight away. One is that 12.04 + requires a much higher minimal spec than pre 11.04 versions so I'm not supprised you had issues. Two (I love this numbering thing???) is we tend to recommend a fresh install when jumping versions like that. Personally I always do a fresh install rather than upgrade. Often it's fine but occassionally, especially when it's the third or fourth upgrade things get glitchy. However, due to point one above even this may not be an option.

But all is not lost. Have you tried a lighter *buntu such as Xubuntu or even lighter, Lubuntu? Both will possibly work on your system even the 12.10 versions.