For Ubuntu users

[dziendobry]

For the  OP, have you tried Linux Mint?  It is a rebadge of Ubuntu with fixes as well as they package proprietary drivers in their distro.  I distro hopped for a year until I found it, now we have 2 laptops and a desktop running it, we couldn't be happier.  The kids can't break it, their friends can't help them get past any security I have put into place, and I don't have to come home from work to troubleshoot more windows machines.

 

[Welly Wu]

I looked into Linux Mint 9 and the forthcoming 10. It looks promising, but I did a search for my ASUS N61JV-X2 notebook PC and I found no threads about it so I am hesitant to switch from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to Linux Mint 9 at the moment. However, I may give it a go today.

 

[Albedo]

Have used both Ubuntu and Windows 7 on my desktop, but I prefer W7 as Nokia Ovi Suite is incompatible with Linux even when using Wine. My laptops runs Linux though, ThinkPad X60s works great with Linux Mint Fluxbox, I prefer less eye candy and more speed. For my usage Gnome is just to slow, I'd rather go with a Windows Manager than a Desktop Environment.
 
For a Netbook with an Atom processor I see no point in going with a standard Ubuntu with Gnome, it's to heavy and really just are bogging down the user experience. I suggest either an OS with Fluxbox or maybe Puppy Linux that's ultrafast with conventional HDD as it loads the entire OS into the memory. My 12 years old ThinkPad 600 (PII 266MHz] has been revitalized with Turbopup Xtreme which have a memory usage upwards to about 20 MiB, and all the programs have been cherry picked for it's lightness.

 

[Welly Wu]

I just installed Linux Mint 9 and I am impressed by it so far. It is leaner, faster, and more efficient than Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. I like the clean user interface which is quite similar to Windows 7. There are not as many official Linux Mint mirrors worldwide as compared to Ubuntu. I noticed that the boot up splash screen looks normal compared to the standard Ubuntu Plymouth splash screen which displayed a greenish tint probably due to the fact that nouveau is not fully compatible with my Intel IGP. I look forward to testing the backup tool that is built in. I downloaded and installed the 64 bit LiveDVD version. For me, Ubuntu was sort of a hassle to install and get to work properly out of the box as I had to search the Ubuntu Forums discussion board on how to solve the suspend & hibernate problems and the outstanding NVIDIA GeForce GT 325 M driver package which I hope will install correctly on Linux Mint 9 x64.
 
So far, I like what I see and I think I will keep it.

 

[NapalmK]

I agree. I really liked mint when I tried it one of the better distributions imo. The only thing I didn't like was the icons and default color but those are pretty minor and easily fixable negatives. I may go back to it soon.