they were just a way to occasionally get into word processing and spreadsheets between idle hours sharing pictures and bullshitting on message boards.

I installed Ubuntu on an old laptop too slow to work with the latest Windows silliness and found that a half dozen programs I depended n wouldn't work. The stuff that did work worked well, but not as well as on my newer Win10 computers.

The bigger problem I've noticed on all operating systems is the more PC power we get, the more OS clowns find ways to waste it. I upgraded this machine to 16 gigs just to keep it moving. I'll have Thunderbird, two or three browsers, and an office suite open at the same time as a utility or three, and while I could do this in the old days with XP, with 7 and up it crashes or slows down horribly unless you max out the ram. Throw in GIMP and it's all over now. 16 gigs and barely enough power to write a letter... How did we ever survive with 640K?

Just as the faster internet speeds get, the more webassholes find to waste, so it takes as long or longer to download a web page, or even email, as it did with the older, slower connections.

Nature does not abhor a vacuum any more than geeks do.

I started using Ubuntu about a year ago. I have found it as easy, if not easier, to use than Windows. I've added a printer, an external hard drive, an ethernet network to another Ubuntu workstation, a wi-fi card, etc. Ubuntu consistently accepts the hardware changes without any trouble. I have found it easy to find a good selection of (free) software to run a busy home office and video editing studio. I'm a bit puzzled by the original poster's use of the word "boring," but if that means functional and easy to use, I guess that I would agree.

Only the boring are ever bored!

that would run all the old XP apps. I hate windows 10, it's slower than my old win ME P3 and I have 8 cores and 16gb ram.

Or arch, or BSD, or...

Ubuntu is made to compete with the look and feel of major commercial distributions, which means that even though it's all Linux underneath, the Unity interface really isn't meant to give the configuration options of something like KDE or even Gnome.

If you're bored, try learning to really leverage the command-line, which is an amazingly powerful tool that I can guarantee that you didn't learn in the span of 6 months.

In short, Ubuntu is only meant as a *gentle* introduction to Linux and Open Source computing. Being bored means you've just never really left the kiddie pool

The Ubuntu MATE user interface is based on Gnome 2. So much better than Gnome 3 or Unity (I hated unity and gnome 3 menus are slow and hard to use). But with MATE, it feels like the old Ubuntu again. super fast and familiar/logical menus. It has a UI tweak tool that has several menu formats - all of which I like. One format includes a unity like search feature - which is great if your not forced to use it. It's easy on the battery too - have it running on two laptops one old and one new.