I think ubuntu is quite elegant as well. For me visual elegance is a secondary thing. I need the extra bit of performance and reliability and I can trade them for visual effects. So for me ubuntu is the best deal.
then i would suggest you test XUBUNTU... try it out on VMWare and tell me what you think of its performance, and always remember that if installed on Hard Disk (Dual boot with Windows) they perform a lot faster...
Other than the Login Ugliness... the Desktop layout is quite nice one you're in hehe




