I am still using Ubuntu 12.04, mostly because of the 'Gnome Classic without effects' desktop provided by gnome-fallback-session.
I like to use a non compositing desktop, as compositing seems to introduce slight latencys and slightly raised battery use in everyday use.
I tried the Gnome-Shell, Cinnamon and Unity on Ubuntu 14.04, but none of them can be run without compositing it seems. Xfce and LXDE do, but both are not so well featured or integrated as the heavier ones.
So is there any way of running a modern desktop without compositing?