@liate Mind you, the alternatives are getting steadily less attractive...J could either purchase licences for aging Windows 7 for my extra computers, or run Windows 10 (which I loathe), or throw something free on there that's going to peeve me constantly but not nearly as much as Windows 10 would.

@mona @liate I've been using GNOME for the last few years - it's improved dramatically and the upcoming 3.26 release is pretty exciting. Heck I only ever drop to CLI these days to run git or compile my projects - I've got no other reasons to use the CLI.

Distros to try;
Manjaro (KDE or GNOME or MATE)
fedora (Really should stick to GNOME only)
openSUSE Tumbleweed (GNOME or KDE)
solus (New project, uses new DE shell)
and Elementary for new/newbie users.

@luke_nukem @liate I still trust to Windows 7 on my main machine. It is far from perfect but, on the balance, provides me with significantly fewer periodic annoyances than other options. I've thrown various Linux distributions on my laptops and feel always that I'm fighting it rather than using it, especially when attempting to use the trackpads or any power saving features.

@mona @liate I can understand that. W7 was the last and only good Windows I reckon.

I seriously recommend trying GNOME on a laptop, and take a bit of time to learn some of the shortcuts available. My workflow is quite fast in it, even though it eschews the traditional UI paradigms somewhat.