Choose Windows 7 or Linux for your laptop. Both options offer flexibility depending on your needs.
Choose Windows 7 or Linux for your laptop. Both options offer flexibility depending on your needs.
They moved to Unity after GNOME 3 came out. That version was a disaster. Things improved a bit, but it remains quite rigid and lacks many features by default. Unless the extensions Ubuntu adds automatically make GNOME better without hurting performance or reliability, I’m unsure about sticking with the standard Ubuntu after 17.04.
Avoid installing Gnome2 because it offers extensive theme compatibility and improved resource handling.
Since GNOME 2 wasn't planned for future development, MATE became unnecessary. The software from GNOME 2 versions would clash with GNOME 3 releases, which is why MATE adapted by renaming the apps, and Caja replaced Nautilus. Canonical aimed to merge mobile and desktop experiences but faced challenges working with either GNOME 2 or 3.
I used my 16.04 on a Dell Latitude D630, dropped Unity completely and installed Gnome2. It worked perfectly. (that was a while back.)