Scientific Linux 6.0 released

I think of that as the price to pay for the overall level of user-interface polish and easy usability of nearly all hardware. If your particular environment is as intolerant of change on desktops as on servers, and you also want a nicely polished desktop UI, I don't think there are any Linux distros that suit at all well.

Ubuntu LTS is probably the closest match, but with that set of requirements, I think you'd probably be better off just running Windows in most environments.