I am running Jessie after some years of running Vectorlinux (Slackware based). I decided to make the change mainly because there were some ham radio packages which required a lot of hand installation, i.e, added libraries, etc. My results have been mixed, but especially in the graphics area. I have run XFCE, also for years, with little difficulty, but on Jessie, I have experienced on both laptop and desktop freezes and dropouts, especially of Iceweasel. Total removal and reinstallation of the browser did not help. Also, I noticed that XFCE was SLOW and much fussier to set up.
I smelled bloatware. So I switched to LXDE and mysteriously, Iceweasel now purrs like a kitten. Though it requires a bit more setup time, LXDE works right, out of the box, the first time. And THAT is why I switched to Linux twenty-one years ago. I have been a Linux user since January 1994 and I have used several dozen distributions and who knows how many graphics packages. The last time that I ran a truly reliable and totally trouble-free mainstream distribution, it was Ubuntu 9.04, or perhaps the same time-frame's Scientific Linux from CERN. I have been worrying for some time about the progress, if it can be called that, of the Linux community in general. I think that in a headlong drive to attract Windows users, you (all major distributions) are perverting a clean slick operating system, turning it into a turgid, bloated Windows replacement. If that continues, I will go to some tiny, clean and brutally fast substitute like Kolibri, written entirely in Assembler, or because of my years of user experience I might build a Linux From Scratch system, a slick, fast bare-bones system devoid of unnecessary fat and turgid apps encrusted with more unnecessary decorative garbage than a 1960 car with tail fins. FWIW, I am running a HP Pavilion DV2610, TurionX2, 4GB RAM and NVIDIA graphics, running Jessie to write this message. Oh, yes... I'm running a TP-Link usb wireless card because I can't get the god-damned Broadcom 4311 internal card running under Jessie. (Thank you Carlie...) Strange, but up to and including Ubuntu 10.04, it ran right out of the box without any fuss, and now even a few hours of curses and sweat can't bring it to life. (But it fires right up on an ancient 9.04 live disk!) Of course, all of this may be moot as I already have an ARM box running (Genesi Smarttop) and a quad core (Rockchip RK3288) TV box which will eventually run Linux or BSD once I can figure out how to get rid of Android. Ed (HP-UX, Ultrix, Irix, QNX2,4,and 6, Haiku, BSD, RTE-A. Anything but Windows or Mac)
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