Is it possible that I upgrade my ubuntu to LTS 12.04 and then download gnome separately and use it as my desktop environment?

Hi,

sure is. See for example an article written by Fab (of Linux Outlaws fame):

http://www.h-online.com/open/feature...u-1614860.html

HTH,

Evo2.

You wont get gnome 2.X with 12.04. You can use gnome 3- 'gnome shell' or 'gnome fallback'. Gnome fallback ubuntu has renamed 'classic gnome' in some typical doublethink.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/classicgnome

Gnome fallback is NOT gnome 2.X, no matter what canonical thinks or says.

If you want the old Gnome environment in Ubuntu 12.04 the only way you will do it is by installing MATE. I like MATE and it doesn't have the dependency on Evolution that forces you to have bloat on your machine that you do not want or use. You can have a nice light and streamlined system if you want or bloat it up as much as you want.

I've never tied installing Gnome or Mate on Ubuntu, but I have tried desktop switching in several distros and it often leads to problems. The GUI that you get by default with any distro has been tested by the developers (and by all the people who use it). When you get a different one from the repository you don't know how much (or how little) testing there's been. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes you discover really interesting bugs. And if you get a GUI from the upstream developers and compile it, you're on your own.

If you like Ubuntu but not Unity, the safest answer is probably Mint.

Mint uses MATE but MATE hasn't been tested by Ubuntu and neither has Cinamon etc. you don;t have to compile MATE, it has a ready supplied repository that you add to your sources.list and then install it. No compiling (this is Debain not LFS afterall) just add to sources.list and install.

It's been tested by Mint! Judging by some of the things I've seen in Ubuntu over the years, that's a bit more reliable. Moreover, Clem is chief developer or coördinator for Mint, Cinnamon, and Mate; that helps.
I never said you did. The point is that the desktop has dependencies: either it's relying on the distro's library files, or the programs in the distro will be relying on the desktop's ones. As a CentOS user (as opposed to a Debian one), I've got stuff from 7 different repositories and I know how much effort is needed to keep it all playing pretty.

This is what you said, unedited.
Notice your second last sentence talks about recompiling.