Like the title says.
I'm looking to have a discussion about stable versions and, as a side discussion, dual booting.

I did for years, starting around version 6, and dumped it for Mint around version 11

https://www.linuxmint.com/

.

If I was forced to use a mainstream Linux distro as my daily driver, it would probably be either Ubuntu or Debian.

I installed Ubuntu 16.10 in a dual boot configuration on a desktop using Vista Home Premium, and on a laptop using Vista Business Edition.

The version I installed is the same on both machines, although one is tailored for a laptop and one is tailored for a desktop. it is supposed to be one guy's latest stable version, but the clock is often wrong when I log into Vista, and the version of Chrome that Ubuntu offers will not render this site properly.

I'm trying to find a way to avoid Vista, as it is no longer supported by anyone, but the old unsupported version of Chrome running on Vista with no security renders this site properly, while the newer Ubuntu-Chrome combo does not.

With a dual boot configuration I can fire up Ubuntu without using Windows, and it has security built into the OS, and Chrome, and Firefox.
I think I need to try a different version of Ubuntu, or Mint, if that is similar.

Anything to avoid Windows, but keep running the same machines.
I need advice.

I use Lubuntu quite a bit. It has the same software and packages as Ubuntu but uses a lightweight desktop environment that isn't terrible and slow.

I never really cared for dual booting. VMs are where it's at. My son's laptop is running Fedora 23 but he needed Windows for some school stuff. Windows 10 was available from the school so that runs (on the rare occasions he needs it) in a VM. If anything goes wrong I just kill the VM.

My laptop is running Fedora 24 and I have any number of other distros available via VMs.

I ran Ubuntu for years, then switched to Mint. The Mint developer is a nutjob though. Then I ran Debian for about a year before switching to Fedora.

I bought a swappable hard drive bay and installed it next to my DVDROM

I have one HD for win10, and a few more to play linux.

that way, if you really fuck things up, you can just change SATA HD's

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-5-25in-Trayless-Mobile-3-5in/dp/B000KS8S9W

I'm a hardcore Slackware Linux user myself and use it 100% daily, but for those coming from windows, give Zorin OS a try.  Its based of ubuntu/debian like mint.  Here is a review and a link to download:

zorin 12 core - review - link

I like Ubuntu (hate Unity). I've been using Ubuntu now since 12.04, Mint 12 and 13 prior to that (yes, I went backwards), and at least one of my computers has always had the current LTS (upgrading once the .1 release is out). I think it is one of the more robust distros for server use and that is generally how I utilize it. When I install a desktop I generally use XFCE (no matter what the base).

Once you get use to Arch, aptitude can really annoy you (pacman just has a simplicity about it) but other than that I've left machines running for months between reboots/upgrades and only seen one or two kernel panics (due to failing drives).

Almost every day.  I'm still using 14.x LTS.  Can't remember exactly which offhand.

at work 

Just to clarify, are you keeping Vista for web browsing?  Would you drop Vista completely if the rendering issue was resolved?  I only ask because Vista end of life is this April.  I've had issues with websites rendering properly on Windows and Linux depending on the browser addons I'm running, etc.  Personally, I'm using the latest version of Mint/Firefox.  This site looks the same on my Windows 10 laptop running Firefox.  

I think you should to some distro hopping or try different desktops.  I prefer Mint/XFCE on my 8 year old laptop.  Time to make some LiveCDs and experiment.  

Release Cycle

Ubuntu has a release cycle that seems awkward at first, but makes a lot of sense on closer inspection.  Every release has a YY.MM scheme, where YY is the two digit year and MM is the two digit month.  Hence, Ubuntu 16.10 was released in October of 2016.  Releases occur every year in April and October.

Now, there are two different types of releases:  standard and LTS.  Standard releases are supported until the next release.  While these represent the latest features in open source software, users wishing to keep their machines secure need to upgrade every six months.  The LTS releases, on the other hand, are supported for five years.  LTS releases occur on April of every even numbered year.

So the currently supported LTS releases are 16.04, 14.04 and 12.04.  The current standard release is 16.10.

Flavors

There are several different flavors of Ubuntu, each with its own default desktop environment:

Ubuntu Desktop:  Unity 7
Ubuntu Gnome:  Gnome 3
Ubuntu MATE:  Mate Desktop (fork of Gnome 2)
Kubuntu:  KDE
Xubuntu: XFCE
Lubuntu:  LXDE

Now each of these flavors have something in common:  They are all meant to be installed on desktop PCs.  There are three other flavors of Ubuntu worth mentioning, however:

Ubuntu Server:  Used on full scale servers with SAS RAID, 10 GbE, etc...
Ubuntu Core:  Intended for embedded devices that have no display.
Ubuntu Touch:  Intended for smartphones.

The Future

If everything goes according to plan, 18.04 should mark the release of Ubuntu Personal, which is the convergence of the Desktop and Touch code bases.  The desktop will be Unity 8.  While this may seem asinine at first, I can elaborate on why they are doing it.  It is slated to be the biggest release they have ever made.

And while this last part hasn't been confirmed, it also seems as if Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Core are going to be combined.

I use Ubuntu exclusively on my desktops at home, and I have both of my laptops set up to dual-boot (for now). UEFI was kind of a pain to get around to install the first time, but I haven't had to do a cold install for a couple of years so maybe it's improved.

I've never seen the Core install. I generally do minimal installs for most things and occasionally I use the server install. Minimal doesn't have any wireless support out of the box without obtaining additional packages, just something to keep a lookout for. I haven't yet found a desktop aimed install that installs without any window manager yet but I guess one could always use the server install if needed (since it gives you the option in tasksel to install desktop environments.

I won't recommend dual booting, ie two OS on the same HD. Buy a cheap HD or reuse one from an old computer. Modern BIOS (8 years or so) have a boot menu. For ASROCK is F11 key. So basically if I don't want to boot from my default HD, I hit F11. It will give me a list of all the HD on computer to boot from. Current I have 9 total HDD/SSD in my computer (all hotswappable) 4 of which have t heir own OS.

As for Ubuntu. I couldn't get use to Unity desktop interface. If you come from a MAC background it much easier to  transition than from a Window background. I switched to Mint due to similarity to window.

Core is extremely minimal and it doesn't even use APT for a package manager.  It uses Snaps.  I can elaborate more on that, too.

I generally don't because I find no one cares about the details.

I tried but my new laptop has a 4k screen and it makes the display so tiny you cant see anything.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I've been reading a lot and watching YouTube videos. I realize now that I should have downloaded 16.04.
I have Xubuntu running on the Thinkpad, and Gome 3 running on my desk top. I had standard Ubuntu at first, but it was unstable so I deleted it and downloaded a program that had several versions, and picked a different one for each machine. Gnome is not bad, but Xubuntu is too bare bones and not user friendly.

I'm thinking of loading a third Ubuntu OS on the laptop, and triple boot.
I've been reading about how to do that. Still learning.

I'm also thinking of downloading a program that will wipe Windows off of the hard drive and install whatever flavor of Linux I like the best after trying  several more in a virtual machine. I don't have any personal items on the laptop. It's a $70 Lenovo made in 2007, that my wife bought on ebay a few months go. and all that I've put on it is a browser and a couple of flavors of Ubuntu.

If I don't kill it I'll have a nice computer after I buy a better battery for it.

If it works for the laptop, the desktop is next. Lots of content to save before going too far on it though.

Mint or Cinnamon is good also I have them on flash drives.

WARNING:  This command will perform a block-level erase of your entire primary drive (not just a single partition).  The only people with the power to undo this form of deletion are the feds once they take the HDD platter out and put it into clandestine hardware for analysis.

To do this, boot your machine up with a live CD of some sort and go to a terminal window.  Then enter this command: cat /dev/zero > /dev/sda

After that, boot up your favorite distribution's installer and tell it to use the entire disk, or a partition.

I thought I'd post an update. I've been using Gnome on the desktop quite a bit. I like it. I downloaded Gimp and made this avatar. It's nothing fancy, but I have barely scratched the surface on learning how to use Gimp.

I downloaded a 64 bit version of Ubuntu 16.04.1 and a special program to burn it onto a DVD. I ran that disk on the laptop, and after a trial run of Ubuntu, to see if the disk was good, I chose the option of having the disk wipe the hard drive and install Ubuntu. I broke a rule, and wasn't sure how it would turn out, because my laptop is 32 bit and they have a 32 bit version tailored for Windows Vista. Chromium isn't supporting 32 bit systems, so I chose the 64 bit download. So far it is working great, except both Firefox and Chromium render this site incorrectly using this configuration.

It hasn't thrown any error reports at me, unlike Gnome on my desktop. I think it will be fine. I'm thinking of partitioning the hard drive, which is 4.1% full  , and using the disk again to install Gnome on the laptop so I have choices. Maybe Gnome will fix my problem with this site, in particular.

Update;
I ran the disk from startup, to see if it offered other versions like Gnome or Lubuntu, etc.
It didn't. I'm going to look for a Gnome download. I already have a program to partition the drive.

This site glitch I keep mentioning only occurs on the laptop. I'm posting a screen capture just to show you what I'm talking about. If you look hard you will see that the two middle columns are missing. The author column and the replies/views column. The log-in area is on the left side of the screen, that hash button. My Adblock is turned off, but there aren't any ads showing.  Overall, it's a minor glitch, but it would be nice if it displayed correctly.

Attached File