Ubuntu or Mint

[kurt18947]

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I actually do have Ubuntu 16.04 on a laptop I use for music and enjoy the novelty of the side bar but when I tried to use it for browsing and/or writing texts it just seems unnecessarily in the way all the time. I guess if you regularly use a large number of programmes this can be more efficient than opening a pop-up menu but a simple panel along the bottom of the screen works well for me and both Mate and Mint kinda do that by default (although there's a top panel too with Mate).
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I think where the 'controls' are located depends on one does most of the time. For many users, they're working on documents that are taller than they are wide. Unless they're using a portrait style monitor (rare) one could make a good case for having 'stuff' on the side rather than top or bottom, there's more unused space. That's why grumpy old people (like me) would really prefer a more nearly square monitor (4:3) rather than the 'movie screen' aspect ratio (16:9 or 16:10). We're used to panels and controls top and bottom because that's what we've used since we started using computers.

[kurt18947]

Xubuntu is more malleable, being lighter off the bat, but still capable of adding heft if you want ( You add advanced compositing components like compiz)
Ubuntu lacks the customizations that Xubuntu can offer. And starts off hefty.

As well as Ubuntu being a gnome desktop it follows the ebb and flow of gnome and the crazy zany ways gnome packages can change rapidly.
Xubuntu has generally stayed much as it has for most the time I've used it going on and off for 6/7 years now.
(Or at least Xubuntu's changes are by far less intrusive, imo)

So Xubuntu's stable and familiar base is something to think about.

Very true and why SWMBO is running Xubuntu even though I'm running Ubuntu 18.04 and 16.04. She HATES change and has made it abundantly clear. Xubuntu's user experience doesn't change much over time so suits her preferences.

[coffeefiend]

I have Ubuntu 16.04 loaded in dual boot with Win10 on one of my laptops. Still debating whether I want to just load completely over Win10 as I have another laptop which is strictly Win10. I originally wanted to load Mint, but kept getting a kernel panic every time. Ubuntu loaded right up with no issues. I have been more than happy with Ubuntu since.

[coffeefiend]

Yeah I went ahead and loaded Ubuntu over Win10 and made it a full on Linux machine. And my mistake, it wasn't 16.04, but rather 17.01.

[George_Weischadle]

I switched over to Ubuntu from XP ten years or so ago. Never looked back, not once. And I've happily stayed with Ubuntu long term support (LTS) releases for most of that time. I don't miss all those virus checks and disk defrags from days gone by.

[kurt18947]

I switched over to Ubuntu from XP ten years or so ago. Never looked back, not once. And I've happily stayed with Ubuntu long term support (LTS) releases for most of that time. I don't miss all those virus checks and disk defrags from days gone by.

But didn't all the futzing with Windows make you feel like a minor IT deity?.

[sevendogsbsd]

Mint is very solid and very reliable (Cinnamon edition anyway), however, I find it incredibly boring. Kind of like a Toyota Camry: reliable and gets the job done but not exciting. My favorite desktop of all time is Gnome, weird as it is. New Ubuntu is a tweaked Gnome and not exactly what I am used to but I am growing to like it. For me, it's Ubuntu over Mint.

[wheatpenny2]

I've tried both Mint (cinnamon and Mate editions)and Ubuntu and the thing that bothered me the most about Mint was when I went to install a dual-boot it kept not offering me the option. The only option was to erase Windows and replace it with Mint. Finally after several tries it offered me the dual-boot option. (both Cinnamon and Mate do that).
So when it comes to installing it, Ubuntu is a lot less frustrating.