@hazardwarning A good choice on the behalf of the MATE project. Specially in combination with the otherwise great compatibility of Ubuntu.
A shame, really, that Unity doesn't run as well on lower spec machines. Was probably back in 2012 when I tried it in earnest on an old Fujitsu, and it was pretty good. I should explore the newer versions on real hardware this year. Might need to pick up an old Toshiba, Sony, or Thinkpad to play around with.
Being Pi compatible sure is a great benefit too. :)
// @matigo