Out of interest, what's your preferred choice nowadays? I've always preferred to stick with Debian-derived distros so I don't need to learn a different package manager (silly, I know).
I guess I like the comfort/predictably of Ubuntu - I know what to expect, and how to fix it if things go wrong. But maybe I shouldn't be limiting myself.
I am on a Debian based distro as we speak! I'm using Crunchbang++. For me a perfect operating system is very simple and mostly just stays out of the way. Crunchbang is perfect for that. My setup is very minimal and probably wouldn't be ideal for most users. For most users I recommend Linux Mint, but if you are using Ubuntu and it's working for you there's nothing wrong with that! One of the great things about linux is the huge variety of options of distros to choose from. There's different flavors to suit everyone's needs. What makes this especially great is that under the hood, linux is linux, so for the most part you can use what works for you and not miss out on capability.
Eh I love GNOME 3, especially after like 3.22 or so. It’s not very customizable, and that’s kinda the point. With KDE I spent far too long fussing with settings instead of getting shit done.