My problem with newer Ubuntu was not with Unity itself, but with lesser ability to configure anything decently (for example, move the launcher panel). I'd have

My problem with newer Ubuntu was not with Unity itself, but with lesser ability to configure anything decently (for example, move the launcher panel). I'd have to literally hack my way through the code and config files, and I didn't like it. Once upon a time I was a Gentoo guy. I've ran wmii (and later moved to xmonad) and had my own portage overlay with quite a lot of near-to-the-bleeding-edge versions and personalization patches to various software. Then I've graduated, got a job and had significantly less time to maintain patches and fiddle around with customizations and compile software. So I've moved to Ubuntu, where everything worked almost "out of the box", and I've mostly had to click around the GUI or edit some simple config files to make the system suit my tastes. With the relatively recent changes, I had a feeling that the system had become less "open", harder to customize. So, as a first step, I've moved to Kubuntu (but don't really like it due to various KDE glitches). I want a distro, with a recent packages, that would decently work out-of-the-box, but doesn't hide everything deep under the hood. Ubuntu started to lack that, so I've moved a bit (to Kubuntu) and now lazily looking for the alternatives.