Moving up in the world (replaced my old Windows 7 machine's OS with Ubuntu so I can get familiar with Linux)

welcome to the world of linux

Good choice. In case you like Linux you could also try out Arch. It's my fav distro but hasn't got a graphical installer :)

@b3b3 I'll look into it!

@b3b3 arch is love arch is life

Ubuntu's always a good place to start ^^ still using derivations of it

Welcome to Linux!
Ubuntu is a great starting point

Nice move. I'm about to completely erase windows from my main machine. The linux subsystem isn't really enough right now...

Welcome!! Next Ubuntu version coming in a month, you will say good bye to unity!

Only thing left to do is to ditch toshiba for lenovo ;)

Good move but change the gnome desktop. I can't with that gnome desktop version...

i'd suggest xubuntu if you're going the ubuntu route;
i mostly prefer Arch however. You should take a look at antergos, it's an out-of-the-box easy arch installation,
(i'd suggest KDE as the desktop. it lets you choose during the install)
http://xubuntu.org
http://antergos.com

@demiko i m only using an old version atm but with enough ram and SSD it runs fine. The x1 carbon is pretty cool but mine got stolen -_-

Better use Xubuntu or Ubuntu Mate. Unity sucks so hard.

Welcome to Linux.
I'll recommend for a laptop Linux Mint. Is user friendly distro if u went from Windows.

Good choice. Welcome to the peguin family. A few books i recommend:

The Linux Bible
The Ubuntu Bible
follow linux.com/tutorials

Oh I had that exact same Toshiba, it served me well that poor thing, I learned most of my programming stuff using it

@nickj

Fcuk, this what exactly I want to comment. That's why I opened the rant. And you commented it already. :)

Do the same to all your machine now !!!

Few years back, when I was in University, I used to think like how come people code 2, 3 days straight.

In the past 2 days, I didn't even sleep more than 30 mins. May be a nap., I guess.

Now I get it. This is passion. This is life.

There are some great and easy to install themes for ubuntu. Then your notebook doesn't look like 8 years old but fresh as new. This default theme is not very pleasing in my opinion. I use a theme called Arc (dark) in my ubuntu install if I remember correctly.

@TobyAsE Thanks, I'll definitely look into it!

You are late