I use ubuntu on a daily basis and I hate the crappy UI.
Mint KDE or XFCE[*] edition would be a better bet unless you really have to use Ubuntu. KDE on a big system, XFCE on those with less grunt.
[*] I prefer LXDE to XFCE but it's no longer supported as an initial install option so I start with XFCE then do an "apt-get install lxde" as part of the post-install tweaking.