Choosing a Second Distrobution...recomendations?

[UbuNoob001]

Hey all!
So Im new to Linux (Ubuntu 9.1) and have been reasonably happy with it. Had a few issues with wireless, got those sorted out, and seem to have a system as capable as Windows/OSX with a better philosophy. However....
Now that everything is set up, Ubuntu seems slightly clunky, maybe not as elegant or "anti-windows" as I had hoped. Im not an advanced computer user, however Im willing to learn. Do you guys have a recommendation? I suppose simplicity, elegance, speed, and a less "windowsy" feel would be fun to try out.
Like I said, im not advanced at all....ex. only recently figured out how to partition, even begin using the command line for simple tasks. However, like I said im willing to learn assuming its not terribly complex. If you don't mind, recommend something? Thanks!
Brad

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

Any of the top 10 distros listed in the "page hit ranking" list at DistroWatch.com are usually pretty good choices for those new to Linux.

[reed9]

I suppose simplicity, elegance, speed, and a less "windowsy" feel would be fun to try out.

I would recommend playing around with alternate window managers. Any distro using KDE or GNOME is going to have a similar feel.

Two of the most popular window managers are openbox and fluxbox.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fluxbox
Openbox guide urukrama’s weblog

EDIT: Here is an example of what openbox can look like.

Another lesser know WM is pekwm. I tend to bounce between pekwm and openbox.
Howto: Install and configure Pekwm - Ubuntu Forums

Try Crunchbang Linux for an Ubuntu-based distro that uses openbox. You can get a feel for it without having to suffer through as much of the learning pains and time configuring it yourself.

[samalex]

Hey all!
So Im new to Linux (Ubuntu 9.1) and have been reasonably happy with it. Had a few issues with wireless, got those sorted out, and seem to have a system as capable as Windows/OSX with a better philosophy. However....
Now that everything is set up, Ubuntu seems slightly clunky, maybe not as elegant or "anti-windows" as I had hoped. Im not an advanced computer user, however Im willing to learn. Do you guys have a recommendation? I suppose simplicity, elegance, speed, and a less "windowsy" feel would be fun to try out.
Like I said, im not advanced at all....ex. only recently figured out how to partition, even begin using the command line for simple tasks. However, like I said im willing to learn assuming its not terribly complex. If you don't mind, recommend something? Thanks!
Brad

Welcome to Linux...

I agree with others that you may want to check out some of the other Window Managers or Desktop Environments. Fluxbox is one of my faves, but check out xwinman.org for a list of TONS more.

As for something that's "anti-windows" you can check out the Free Software Foundation website - gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html - where they have a list of approved operating systems that they consider to be truly Free. With Ubuntu having Mono apps included it's automatically out of the running, according to RMS anyway

The problem with going with an 'All Free' operating system is that often some of the open source variants don't work all that well. Ubuntu used to come with an open source variant of JRE that didn't work for any of my online classes. I had to gut it and install Sun Jave for things to work. Same goes for some of the open source PDF readers... For me if there's a Linux version from the mainstream software provider I don't mind running it, even if there's a license to agree with. I'm not a Free Software purist I guess...

Take care --

Sam