Maybe it's time to leave the shores of Ubuntu and find new lands..

[foozball3000]

I've Installed Ubuntu Precise after long hours of struggling with the new Linux Mint. (It just doesn't boot, and when it does, it stalls when installing.)

But it's horrible. The main reason I used Mint/Ubuntu in the past was because of the massive performance difference when working with large scenes in Blender 3D and Gimp (Not to mention that everything happened instantly, the interface was impressively fast). Granted, I haven't done a real speed test with the current Ubuntu and Win7 on my new hardware. With Jaunty and a few builds afterwards, I got almost double the rendering speed.

But it's not a joy to be in Linux anymore. If I wanted a sluggish overly flashy interface, I'd just use Win7.

With that said, and that my only requirements are for CGI and texturing, what other distros would you advise?
It may be time to explore something new.

How's Gentoo?

It seems that a lot of people think I'm running a 486, so let's settle the score:
- i7-2600K 3.4GHz
- 16GB Corsair Gaming RAM (Came with the bundle purchase)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570
- on an ASUS P8P67 PRO Motherboard

[SirMCDeats]

From what I gather in this post - it's really Unity that you don't like?

If so, you're not the only one, I've tried to like it and have used it since its' initial release but I just couldn't anymore. I started looking for alternatives to Ubuntu but couldn't find anything I really liked. It was evident that my problem was not with Ubuntu, but with Unity, so I replaced it with gnome3 I'm enjoying it so far but still prefer gnome2.

Have you looked at Xubuntu? It's Ubuntu with XFCE installed instead of gnome3 / Unity.

http://xubuntu.org/

[foozball3000]

From what I gather in this post - it's really Unity that you don't like?

If so, you're not the only one, I've tried to like it and have used it since its' initial release but I just couldn't anymore. I started looking for alternatives to Ubuntu but couldn't find anything I really liked. It was evident that my problem was not with Ubuntu, but with Unity, so I replaced it with gnome3 I'm enjoying it so far but still prefer gnome2.

Have you looked at Xubuntu? It's Ubuntu with XFCE installed instead of gnome3 / Unity.

http://xubuntu.org/

Well, it's worth the try to fix ubuntu rather than going through the mission of installing something new. Found a "How to install Gnome 3". So, I'll see if that fixes the problem.. if not, I'll try xubuntu and Fedora.

[debonair]

I moved from Ubuntu a year ago over to Fedora. With a little tweaking, you can get a very responsive system...

[SirMCDeats]

I moved from Ubuntu a year ago over to Fedora. With a little tweaking, you can get a very responsive system...

Fedora uses gnome3 as the default desktop environment these days right?

I still prefer debian based though.

[Tinuva]

You can also try linux mint debian edition. It is based on debian as the name imply, and you can choose between their "Mate" and XFCE desktop. I installed mate version, and while it was ok, I installed KDE and just use that, it is what I always used to use before going to Gnome2, and now I went back, but that is just my personal preference.

[MyWorld]

I have never had a problem with Mint not booting, strange...

Gentoo is a no go if you are running a production station. It is good for someone wanting to learn a lot about the ins and outs of Linux, but the bleeding edge nature makes it very unstable. I have had a few occasions in the past where I needed work done and instead I spend hours trying to fix some new break in Gentoo only to miss a deadline or work through the night to get things done. I used Gentoo for 7 years, so no, it is not a noob question. It will run fine for months, but then suddenly when you least can afford it the paw-paw hits the fan and you are stuck.

Arch Linux is the safe middle ground for me, the power of installing only what you need but not with the time consuming work of maintaining a system that is Gentoo. Sabayon Linux is also a binary based Gentoo distro and has been making headlines the last year or so, maybe check them out as well?

[debonair]

Fedora uses gnome3 as the default desktop environment these days right?

I still prefer debian based though.

Yes Fedora runs Gnome 3 by default, I have both gnome 3 and KDE installed

[Knyro]

Fedora uses gnome3 as the default desktop environment these days right?

I still prefer debian based though.

Why not use Debian itself? It's not as user friendly as Ubuntu when starting out, mainly because you'll want to add a few more repositories manually but once you get going it's excellent, and highly stable. Plus you can go back to Gnome 2

[ZAFluffyBunny]

I'm seriously looking at Mint... The only thing stopping me is the fact that my Ubuntu box is still plodding along without issue. Somehow Ubuntu has lost it's magic.... Not sure what the issue is, because I actually like Unity

[foozball3000]

Well, I reverted my Ubuntu back to Gnome3... which gave me a serious boos in interface response time. Nice. But still didn't like it. Simple tasks that I often do now takes 10 times longer to find first. So, reverted back to Gnome Classic.. which doesn't quite work. At least in Gnome Classic I get to use my 2nd monitor.

Fed up with struggling, I just installed Fedora KDE. (Figured I'll see what the fuss about KDE is). So far so good. All my CGI apps work, and it follows my working style quite nicely. I'll see what happens when I install the proper NVidia drivers.

Rendering a complex scene - Fedora : 9:49 min. Windows 7 : 14:35min. Almost 75%.. nice.

[avert]

Atleast the unity coming in 12.10 looks worthwhile.
Being able to search ANYTHING is amazing.

[Ockie]

I'm seriously looking at Mint... The only thing stopping me is the fact that my Ubuntu box is still plodding along without issue. Somehow Ubuntu has lost it's magic.... Not sure what the issue is, because I actually like Unity

Mint is great. Love it. You can also choose between Cinnamon and Mate and I suppose you can also install Gnome 3 without customisation from mint also.

[Mokrayz]

Ive tried many linux but almost always ends up with ubuntu again. I would maybe suggest installing a LTE and stcking with it till the next LTE as newer editions always comes with new bugs which by the time it is all fixed the next version is released. So I installed Ubuntu 12.04 and will stick with it till next LTE

[MyWorld]

I just came across a nice compromise for the people intimidated by Arch.

http://blog.manjaro.org

It should be much easier to install and maintain.