I switched to Xubuntu as well when Unity hit for all of my machines. I think I'm going to give Unity a shot this time on at least one of my laptops and see what happens.
It has occurred to me that most things I want to use require GDK anyways, so XFCE isn't all that light weight any more.
You're right, XFCE isn't all that "lightweight" when you add in all the things you need to make it usable.
XFCE still feels faster than GNOME or KDE on old hardware, probably because it doesn't use any semi-transparent 3D gimmicks. It is also shaping up to be a very good option for those who prefer the old GNOME look. The panel and most other UI elements are even more configurable than I remember GNOME 2 to have been. I'll be sticking with Xubuntu 12.04 for quite some time.
I'm conflicted really. I am used to the old GNOME desktop, so XFCE just feels like home to me... I'll miss right-clicking my desktop for instance... but I feel that in order to better support customers going forward I need to get used to the UI's that they will be using.
I do very little Linux support currently, but there are talks of deploying Linux in our schools very soon and I can't see them using anything other than Ubuntu. It will do me well to have familiarity with the product. I'm upgrading my desktop to Xubuntu 12.04 now, but I think I'm going to switch my secondary laptop to Ubuntu and start getting used to it.
I've had teenagers using a couple of netbooks in classes running 12.04. No fuss, just handed them the netbook to access Moodle course in-class during group work, along with a few College windows laptops.
No problem. Just needed a word about how clicking on the 'cog wheel' to close Firefox won't work (windows controls hidden until mouse over). They just clicked around the interface to find things.
That's really what I expect from implementing Ubuntu in our current classrooms.
West Virginia is making a BIG push on the school districts to have a 1:1 student/computer ratio. Most districts going forward with it are purchasing netbooks to cut costs. Their technology budgets are already thin and they are desperately looking for ways of trimming even more to make room for more machines.
Campus wifi? A central server running Moodle as the VLE in each school? It could work very well for them. The further education college in which I work has Windows, but they have installed GIMP, Inkscape, Audacity college wide. Some great work with Audacity, people find GIMP a bit harder. Inkscape isn't used much (but then neither is Adobe Illustrator).
Most of the larger schools (Middle/High) already have campus wide wifi. Some of the larger elementary schools do as well.
The big push right now is for VM Ware. Some of the counties are going to a district-wide WAN for serving up VMs from a central NOC.
That sounds great. Wifi/Internet enabled netbooks in a class one to a group can encourage discussion and carefully planned research if the teacher just thinks through the pedagogy a bit.
It has occurred to me that most things I want to use require GDK anyways, so XFCE isn't all that light weight any more.