Bye bye Ubuntu?

I've been an Ubuntu user for almost ten years now. I love its simplicity, light, fast and user-friendly approach. Sometimes I try Fedora and SuSE, but somehow both of them have always had problem here and there with my laptop (first Toshiba PM500 and then Asus UL20A) and they never convinced me to move away from Ubuntu. Therefore I've always recommended Ubuntu to my friends and all of them haven't regretted it.

In April this year Ubuntu introduced Unity. I tried to get along with it, but I never managed. So I ignored Unity and I've always used Ubuntu classic as windows manager since then. At least Ubuntu 11.04 gives me a choice to choose between Ubuntu with Unity and Ubuntu classic.

This October Ubuntu brought out Oneiric. As Ubuntu faithful I installed the new system. But Ubuntu doesn't give me any choice of Window manager. No Ubuntu classic anymore. So I tried to make friend with Unity. Unfortunately I feel annoyed that there is no possibility to change the setting of the launcher. For me the Unity launcher with its big icons is ugly. And to my further annoyance there is no menu any more where I can browse applications. To find an application Ubuntu let me walk a long way through dashboard. And even after googling some times I cannot find the way to activate F10 in Midnight commander! After playing for a few days with Ubuntu 11.10 I started thinking of alternative.

Today I decided to try Linux Mint Debian. And I think I don't want to say goodbye to Ubuntu yet, but for now I stay with Linux Mint Debian, although I don't like the standard theme and the wallpaper of LMDe. But I've changed them anyway.

Update (20 October 2011): Somehow I missed Ubuntu. So I decided to reinstalled Ubuntu 11.04, which is anyway a LTS (long term support) version. Bye Ubuntu 11.10, but not bye to Ubuntu at all. Ubuntu is still my preferable desktop for working.

Update (3 February 2012): I could only bear Ubuntu 11.04 for few days. I came back to Ubuntu 11.10 and tried to get used to Unity. And I get along with Unity. More and more I love its lenses. I'm even convinced that Ubuntu's decision was right, in particular if Ubuntu wants to be in mobile phones, tablets and TVs. Linux traditional menu is simply outdated to see on mobile phones or tablets. Bravo Ubuntu!

Update (13 July 2012): I have been using Ubuntu 12.04 for a few months now and I don't have any need to change or to try other distributions. Believe it or not, I used 12.04 version since its beta status back in February. However I'm waiting impatiently for Ubuntu integration with my Android phone/tablets.