"Avoid the pain of Windows 8"
If you think Windows 8 is going to be a pain, I don't recommend moving to Ubuntu. BTW, I really like Ubuntu. I don't like that sales pitch though.
If you think Windows 8 is going to be a pain, I don't recommend moving to Ubuntu. BTW, I really like Ubuntu. I don't like that sales pitch though.
OSX is the most user-friendly of the 3. However with Ubuntu you get freedom in all senses of the word. People complain that Ubuntu has hardware issues, yet they never tried building a Hackintosh, not to mention that you're not allowed to do it anyway. Of course you have more problems on Ubuntu with hardware, but there is hardware supported out of the box and for the others for any issue you may have at least you'll find a solution.
For me Ubuntu represents freedom. Freedom to fix issues with it, freedom from a gatekeeper, freedom to own it entirely in every possible way. I see that few people, few devs actually, place emphasis on the ability to own something. And then they get pissed off when the gatekeeper changes the rules. Well, you make your bed, you sleep in it and so on.
Now, some quick searches reveal that if you don't have a backup, it is still just a matter of forcibly install dpkg, debconf, apt and apt-utils with appropriate switches to prevent the dependency resolution from complaining, copying the dpkg.status backups that are automatically copied to /var/backups/ to /var/lib/dpkg, and then force a "reinstall" of all the packages that are listed as installed to get the rest of the data (.info files etc. back).
If you somehow managed to wipe out both /var/lib/dpkg and /var/backups _and_ not have a backup of your system, I'd have little sympathy, but even then you can restore most of a system by getting package lists for your specific distro version and force reinstalls of all the base packages. Restoring dpkg info for any custom installs would be a bit more work, but not worse than getting an iso of the distro, mounting it, and obtaining a list of matching packages for the files in your system directories.
But the latter is not necessary. Your system will keep working. You'll just run into occasional problems installing new packages and having to force installs when something pulls in a package you actually have installed but don't have a record of.
Changing the default is the only way you can get rapid improvement in a market. Making it easy to switch back satisfies those who are significantly upset with the change. It is the best compromise I have seen between progress and supporting legacy users.
Also, unity only changed the desktop. The apps you run were the same. Metro has a different UI paradigm for the apps themselves.
You don't have to use Unity. I see Unity as a potential innovation driver but something I probably won't use for a long time. You will have to switch to an unfamiliar UI, but you get to decide which one it will be. And if you use Gnome or KDE, you will have a ton of control to make the UI bend to your will (assuming you don't mind banging your head against it for a few hours to get it configured just right).