> But I would have to use some video conversion programs only available on MS > and kept hoping there would be some progress in the video realm with linux, > but it seems to have stalled or even gotten worse now. I have never found anything comparable to the power of mencoder and ffmpeg for converting video file formats, if that's what you mean by conversion programs. As far as editing goes, I'm not nearly as familiar, but I hear kdenlive has grown a lot lately. > Hi guys, > I am perplexed lately as to what version of Linux to use. I hated the Unity > desktop and wanted to keep Ubuntu as I really liked it before that change. > I > know that underneath it was the same as before and would work best for me, > but > I wanted my familiar menu back. I have tried using non-*buntu distributions, but always come back due to the availability of binary packages. I used Bodhi for years until the maintainer quit a few months ago. Now I'm using Ubuntu with Unity replaced with Openbox. I have 16gb memory on my laptop, and while idling use about 200mb of that... I don't think I'd recommend either using Openbox or removing Unity unless you have some time to play around with it. Maybe lubuntu or something similar is for you? I don't know how "familiar" you're looking for. -Max