Personally I’m not looking an OS that is “not so bad”, the initial impression should be “this is great” :)
Ubuntu is kind of the “Windows” of the Linux world
That’s also the thing, I switched to Linux because I hated using Windows, and I don’t like how Microsoft operates. The last think I want is a distribution which tries to be Windows made by a company which tries to be Microsoft. It’s of course an exaggeration, and Ubuntu doesn’t do EEE and patent trolling as far as I know, but at least for me it feels like they’re going in the wrong direction when they keep reinventing the wheel, forcing solutions that users don’t want, and generally trying to create a “one size fits all” desktop. I’m not against it, Ubuntu is probably a good choice for some users, it just doesn’t fit me. I used Xubuntu for many years, and I also tried both Gnome and Unity at different points, but currently I use Fedora KDE.
Cleaning the print surface with warm water and soap, and then avoiding touching it with your hands, is a good start if you haven’t done so alreayd. Calibrating first layer height, flow rate, temperatures, etc. is generally the way, but if you want a quick and easy solution I gotta say that Magigoo has worked really well for me. It’s a bit expensive, but I’ve reapplied it a few times and never have to wash the bed so that one bottle will likely last a lifetime. I think you can get similar results with a high PVA content glue stick or hair spray. And there are of course other 3d print glues which I haven’t tried, I’m assuming they work equally well.