So, what are the contenders?
- Too Minimal (great for my surface, but not as a general use desktop)
+ Great performance
- Poor performance when tested previously on my Surface (plus a wicked case of disk thrashing)
+ Personal Familiarity
+ Good hardware support
+ Good performance on Surface (none of the disk thrashing experienced with Fedora)
+ Some software in my list to try only supports Ubuntu
- Not a fan of the Unity desktop (it's fine on a laptop, but no so much on desktop).
Picked since the hardware support remains the same as Ubuntu, software in my trial list is supported since it's still "Ubuntu" and the light desktop works similarly enough to Windows.
Of special note, Lubuntu was considered since LXDE is Qt based (which is my thing) and it's light + modern. However, releases looked like they lagged behind mainline Ubuntu (and I suppose I could always just swap DE later on).
As you can see, I ended up opting for Xubuntu here. It’s a bit more “modern” than Fedora and uses a relatively lightweight desktop environment that can help me achieve my goal of returning to Operating System sanity (something around Windows XP era that does just enough to fire up apps and none of the AI everywhere, spyware bullshit Windows has become).
It’s currently installed and there have been some pleasant surprises along the way – I still haven’t tried out everything I’ve set out to accomplish, but I’ll update in the new year with how it’s all gone and what I’ve settled on against each of my hard requirements (hopefully it can help you make a similarly informed decision).