Distros and Desktops, almost OT

[Pete Wright]

Nobody has asked a dumb/weird question in quite a while, so I guess it is
up to me again.

As part of some research I am doing (either for the TED talk I will never
give or the book I will never publish, haven't decided which yet) I want to
play around with some different distros, particularly desktops.

How much are Linux desktops integrated with their distros? Will I get the
full flavor of each desktop if I just install in whatever Linux I am
running (currently Ubuntu Studio 13.04 on this machine) or should I put in
the whole distro for each?

I have a largish (389 gig) windows partition on this machine that has
become essentially useless (all my data backed up elsewhere, I think,
please Goddess) so should I just go ahead and try various distros on this
machine and boot into whichever one I want to use/try at any given time?

I don't even know, for example, what my experience would be like if I put
Unity, for example, on this distro. What I do know is that everything
chosen for it seems to work well with it, and I have been reluctant to mess
with it much.

Please don't panic – the book isn't about software; I am not that into
quicksand stomping! It is about education and various monetization methods
that might work for education building on an Open Source foundation. But I
want to encourage newbies and even Luddites to come and play in Linux, so I
need to know what to suggest that won't leave them hating Linux and me both.

Onward and Upward!

Pete
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