Have you thought about trying another distribution? I know that Ubuntu is
good and that it works for most people, but there is no one distribution for
all users. It is sometimes trial and error to get a fit. Some ditributions
are more forgiving than others and some are more prone to breakage.
Depending on your hardware the problems can begin before you are into the OS
and then they only follow you.

Windows sets standards and OEMs follow them. Linux must use those standards
and backward engineer things to work. Sometimes the results are very good
and sometimes not. Some hardware just proves to be difficult to work with.
There are some printers that will never work in Linux and are only good as
doorstops. It is possible that some other highly proprietary bits may also
never work or may work only partially.

I have had the same computer for four years now and it has given me no
trouble. Should I buy a new one there is no guarantee that this would be the
case. Almost any computer that I would buy would not have been made with
Linux in mind and I would have to take what I get. That might mean that I
would have to do as you are doing, including switching distributions. Having
used Ubuntu for four years now would not keep me from switching if I could
get better results elsewhere.

Debian has three streams, stable, testing and unstable. Ubuntu is based on
unstable. That term is Debian's not Ubuntu's. They test it out thoroughly
but not on all possible hardware and then only over a four month period of
time. Perhaps a less bleeding edge distro would do the trick. I would
suggest PCLinuxOS (RPM, but uses Synaptic) or SimplyMEPIS (Debian based) as
good ones to consider.

I am not saying that Ubuntu is not for you, just that you have options. We
can try to help you, but when there are too many problems then this suggests
a deeper underlying problem. I know that you have been determined and if you
soldier on we will do our best. I know what must be going through your mind
when you talk about re-installation time and effort, but it may be better in
the long run to cut your losses.