The only reason I still use Ubuntu is that their font smoothing is superior to everyone else straight out of the box. I tried to recreate the steps on Fedora, but couldn't come close.
How was I, as inexperienced as I was at the time, supposed to know that a "cross platform" GUI framework was going to render a tab or a label (can't remember which) slightly wrong on Ubuntu compared to Windows? A very frustrating experience.
Keep in mind that "good" UX/UI wasn't even a requirement (or even taught) and mine was honestly one of the better looking programs that were made. Some looked as you can imagine a bunch of students made.