Interesting. I've used Ubuntu for years before Unity, switched between Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu with Unity, Linux Mint Cinnamon, Linux Mint MATE... and finally, as of last week, I've been using Ubuntu Gnome.

It was, of all the above mentioned, the first to give me a fluid desktop performance with decent aesthetics and all functionality I have grown accostumed to. I'm particularly fond of:

* Alt + drag work really well, specially dragging into borders with automatic resize. The lack of this feature in MATE was a daily pain for me.

* Login screen actually has useful information (even HipChat notifications!) and is really accessible - it opens up whether I scroll or simply start typing my password.

* The search box is, for a change (from Unity), actually smart. When I say "home", it knows precisely what I mean.

* All my tools work perfectly. IntelliJ WebStorm, HipChat, Chrome, the terminal... Even Spotify Linux Preview works like a charm.

I have had TWO minor hiccups:

* Bluetooth needed some extra modules installed. After that, everything worked fine.

* Workspaces would not behave appropriately with external monitor. One command solved that.

So, for now, Ubuntu Gnome is definitely my distro of choice.

[edited for formatting]