The new Unity UI in Ubuntu made me go back to use Linux as an operating system. It is original, it feels different to windows and Mac, it is functional, it has sane and sensible keyboard shortcuts that really enhance my productivity.

In comparison, all other Linux UIs look like either something from 10 years ago, or simply a bad copy of OSX.

Also: They made the deal with Steam!

Last month I bought two games only because they have Linux versions: Euro Truck Simulator 2 and Brutal Legend.

And with the very latest AMD driver (13.4) they run great.

Compared to Linux distros 10 years ago Ubuntu makes setup/use dead simple. I remember when I first tried Linux (Slackware) many moons ago it was like an epic achievement to get it up and running. Then Ubuntu came out and it almost felt like I was cheated of the whole Linux experience. Everything seemed to just magically work which is why I think its the most widely used Linux variant today.

I have a lot of respect for how far Ubuntu has come, but I recently made the switch to Mint. The last several releases have become more and more about bringing Canonical's service offerings to the forefront when all I want is a terminal and a browser to do my dev work. Mint gave me a nice default desktop setup, access to the Ubuntu repositories and a world free of any brand's come-ons.