> but does anyone honestly look at the default Ubuntu desktop and think "Well, that's just the pretties desktop I've ever seen". Data point of one, but yes, I

> but does anyone honestly look at the default Ubuntu desktop and think "Well, that's just the pretties desktop I've ever seen". Data point of one, but yes, I have — I genuinely think that Unity (>=12.04) looks better than any of Windows 7, Windows XP, and KDE4 (all of which I had used extensively), MacOS and Gnome-3 (which I had used sporadically) and Windows 8 and 10, (which I've only seen but not used). IMO it's also at least as functional as any of the above. I particularly liked the fact that they "got" the fact that one can have limited vertical screen space and for example the menus of a maximized window merge with the top status bar. Tastes obviously differ widely.