[marcloney]

I converted from Windows to Ubuntu bout 4 years ago and haven't looked back. The Unity UI in my mind is just as visually appealing to a consumer as OSX's (which might be a slightly controversial opinion!)

In terms of IDE, I think it really depends on what you are using it for. I've been using Cloud9, a web-based IDE, quite extensively recently for Javascript work but you still have your standard Eclipse and NetBeans, which are both fairly extensible. You might also consider taking a jump into Vim.

The great thing about Ubuntu is the ability to create a USB Live Distro. Road test it before committing if you are worried. But I don't think you'll be looking back :)

[plqa]

I've used Ubuntu extensively. I don't mind using Unity but you can't get around the fact that on a standard 15.x inch laptop screen that it looks really nasty, nothing is compact, everything is bulky, the borders are thick and the default fonts are very large. It doesn't feel nice to work with a UI that is an eyesore and clunky and so big to the point where things just don't fit on the screen.

I need to use Eclipse, this is what I use for my Java work, the platform I am working on has been painstakingly configured to work nicely with Eclipse and I won't be considering a change of IDE. I already use VIM for my C and Python work.

Eclipse and a more compact interface are my two overriding requirements in a Linux distribution. Without these things I can't consider moving away from OSX.

Any suggestions?

[khyryk]

Eclipse worked just fine in Ubuntu for me, although it's by no means my primary IDE.

[plqa]

I never claimed it didn't work. I claimed the UI was bulky. Try having to work with 20 projects folders with millions of .java files and constantly having to sideways scroll.