Fedora vs. Ubuntu...

[pixel]

With the understanding that this is a total long shot: Has anyone switched from RHEL/Fedora to Ubuntu recently?

I started with RH based distros ~10 years ago, and managed a RHEL server and a few Fedora workstations for a few years for work, so Fedora felt like a natural choice for me when I decided to go linux only on my home desktop. I've been mostly happy with it, I'm very comfortable with yum and the RH way of doing things.

I did try Ubuntu briefly a few years ago and did run Debian on a desktop for a while ~2003, and while they were fine in that I didn't have big problems, I always felt like things were just a little different and in the end I went back to RH because it was good enough and familiar.

So here's the thing, I'm pondering switching to Ubuntu for both my primary desktop and my (2 year old now) Eee netbook. I don't really want to have 2 incompatible distros to work with and part of the motivation is that Ubuntu still maintains a netbook remix/spin but I'm fairly sure Fedora has dropped theirs (I can't find it.) It also seems like there are more packages available for Ubuntu or that they're more readily available.

Has anyone made this sort of switch? What did you feel you gained? Did you feel like you lost anything? Any gotchas that you encountered?

Anyone on the Ubuntu side of the fence have a good compelling reason to switch? I'm honestly not unhappy with Fedora just trying to see if the grass is greener on the other side.

And for the sake of some pretty: Have a few recent desktop screenshots...
GNOME on Fedora 12. (Bar on the bottom is an old version of Docky/Do)

Window-y goodness...

Comments

[snakeling]

I've got about the same specs, and UNR is just no joy, as Gnome is way too heavy :/

Xubuntu uses XFCE, and although it lacks a couple of features that would make life on a netbook easier (the launcher and the optimisation of screen space via maximus and the window-picker-applet), it's so much lighter that the trade-off is worth it.

[pixel]

Interestingly I've been running GNOME on the netbook with F11 and really haven't had too much to complain about, I've heard that Ubuntu installs mono by default (Xubuntu doesn't) and Fedora does not, I wonder if that's got anything to do with it.

Granted I don't do much more than websurf + email check on my Eee these days so I don't expect a whole lot from it either. I didn't even install flash on it. What I WANT is a nice 13" laptop that I can run linux on, small enough to still be portable but big enough my eyes don't hurt to use it.

[snakeling]

I know I uninstalled Mono from my desktop, but I can't recall whether I had uninstalled it from the netbook before the slowness annoyed me enough to switch. Could be.