Have you tried the latest Ubuntu?
1. Still fairly bad video hardware support. I spent two hours helping a buddy set up a mid-range ATI card recently, and we couldn't get full acceleration to work. The configuration just plain sucked.
2. Fonts in the X environment are so ugly that I can't stare at an editor window full of code. Good fonts are rarely open-source.
Ubuntu is nice, but it doesn't come close to the experience of opening a box, pushing the "on" button, and being able to start working right away.
2. it's not the fonts. check this out: http://ubuntutips.net/node/10.
in a nutshell, just put <match target="font"> <edit name="hintstyle"> <const>hintslight</const> </edit> <edit name="autohint"> <bool>true</bool></edit> <edit name="rgba"> <const>rgb</const></edit> <edit mode="assign" name="hinting"> <bool>true</bool> </edit> <edit mode="assign" name="antialias"> <bool>true</bool> </edit> </match>
in your ~/.fonts.conf file.
you won't believe your eyes. try it. :)
== swapping ctrl/caps lock ==
* on osx *
http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~jfieber/osx/ -- i believe i ended up using ucontrol.
* on ubuntu *
go to System/Settings/Keyboard Preferences (xmodmap is still there if you're so inclined)
also, off the top of my head, it was a pain to:
1. add widgets to the menubar (on ubuntu i just add it)
2. rsync backups to an openbsd server because of the hfs+ tags
3. changing the buttons in Mail.app -- they were horrible
4. shutting down spotlight (can't even remember that one)
5. verbose booting
6. and my personal favorite: getting a cd out of the player when the power is off.
There are answers, I'm sure, to all these questions but you have to figure it out.
-utx
ucontrol, and fkeys let you do that. both seem to be unmaitained though.