I totally understand the shift in thinking that you get when you become immersed in open-source - you realise how it's possible for all the elements of your sys

I totally understand the shift in thinking that you get when you become immersed in open-source - you realise how it's possible for all the elements of your system to play well with each other because it's possible for the authors of the software to understand how the kernel/OS/apis/drivers etc. work to a deep level. Once you get used to this, proprietary software starts to take on an appearance of a socially-oblivious actor on your system, needing special attention to keep it fitting-in. You might want to check out the MATE desktop. It's a fairly no-nonsense desktop which also looks quite nice (see ubuntuMATE - especially with the arc themes). I keep going back to check out gnome, but while I admire the polish, I find some design decisions to remain a bit grating.