Try a calm and comfortable desktop environment like XFCE or LXDE—they’re lightweight and easy on the eyes.
Try a calm and comfortable desktop environment like XFCE or LXDE—they’re lightweight and easy on the eyes.
Focus on what's easiest to begin personalizing. Things like re-skinning and small tweaks are great starting points—especially since Unity isn't your style. You mentioned not being a big fan of Gnome 3, though you enjoyed the 2 version. You usually prefer Cinnamon over pre-installed apps, but you're open to exploring new options. With a fresh Ubuntu install, you're ready to experiment with different setups before settling for something familiar.
I've experimented with it before on Mint, but faced some stability problems that led me to abandon it. It wasn't exactly a favorite, but maybe it's worth trying again. When I install Linux for regular use, I often tweak many settings—even the font style—and only after getting it stable do I feel confident.
I noticed Linux Mint can be quite unreliable, sometimes causing issues. The latest installer often fails about half the time. KDE works fine but tends to run slowly.
It seems you're curious about Arch Linux. Would you like to know more about it?
Been a while since I last used it, and I'm not sure I've ever saved it to a personal setup, but I might give it another shot. Think of me as Alinux newbie, though I usually go with Debian.
The setup could require some time and the packet manager has a unique setup, but I prefer Arch. I typically run XFCE on my Linux systems.