Hi folks. which is best desquetop to use with buntu studio?

[Ralf Mardorf]

The best replacement for GNOME2 is Xfce. Xfce for precise is stable.
Usually it's stable for other distros too, there was a spell when it
wasn't for a rolling release I'm using parallel to Ubuntu Studio.
LXDE is good too, but not as good as successor for GNOME2 as Xfce is.
Mate and there's another forge, have forgotten it's name, might be good,
but they for sure are less used than Xfce. The huger the user base is,
the more stable a DE will be.

Xfce for Ubuntu Studio IMO is the right choice.

2 Cents,
Ralf