[JupiterMoon]

Ubuntu LTS versions on totally unsuitable made-for-windows laptops (my next one will not be). I've never (touch wood) had an Ubuntu LTS release break during an update. However, I do a fresh install for each LTS release (takes about 45 minutes -- I keep my /home on it's own partition and the new install finds and uses it).

EDIT And I don't get how a Linux distro can take more work than Windows to get into a useful state. With Linux I just apt-get the software I want and start work. With Windows installing even a minimal python/R/unix tools/compiler/ssh client/office package/tex distribution/browser/video viewer set of software etc takes ages, lots of baby-sitting and frankly nerves as one navigates around the malware.

[eloff]

Debian needs serious help to get the multiple monitors configured and working at full resolution. OpenSuse had that problem plus terribly ugly fonts. It took a lot of reading up online and trying things before I figured out how to fix that. Ubuntu actually had a broken apt-get for me on some recent installs, it turned out to be an issue with using the us subdomain repos, switching to de made apt-get painfully slow, but solved the problem. Luckily I haven't had this issue on my new VM install, so I'm hoping it was resolved. All of them had issues booting (black screen) with the default open-source display driver and required the proprietary drivers to be installed (this is not an issue in a VM.) Just to get Spotify to run on OpenSuse was a herculean effort that I eventually gave up on, but not before buggering up the system.

[JupiterMoon]

> Debian needs serious help to get the multiple monitors configured and working at full resolution

I must have some pretty reduced needs. I just use one xrandr command to tell all my monitors what position to be in and it works - and I think my wife uses the GUI program in Ubuntu's Unity desktop without any pain.

> Ubuntu actually had a broken apt-get for me on some recent installs, it turned out to be an issue with using the us subdomain repos

Did you submit a bug report about this? Seems like a bad bug for a distro like Ubuntu.

> Spotify

Spotify is not supported for OpenSuse (it's beta at best on Ubuntu -- but runs very nicely). Trying to run propriety software on unsupported platforms seems like a very bad idea. And of course installing a bunch of random things in random places will spanner an OS. Btw if you want to run Spotify on unsupported platforms I think that there is an addon for Clementine that works nicely and the addon gets installed in your home dir so won't break things (haven't used it for years because the Spotify client works fine for me so things may have changed).

EDIT

I was wrong Ubuntu doesn't install Nvidia drivers for you. You need to install them after install and the process looks annoying.