yea i think you can switch to GNOME desktop environment if you dont like Unity. Only reason i keep going back to windows is b/c there's some programs that i can only use on there.I run Lubuntu 12.04 on my laptop and for the basic stuff (office, videos, internet, music), it's perfect. Fast, minimalistic and light.
I didn't upgrade because I didn't like the new Unity stuff. I was completely lost so I stayed in 12.04.