Ubuntu abandons Unity8/Mir/Phones... WHAT?

I get your gut feeling, but I’m actually glad they didn’t pick MATE.
It’s selfish but I like this here community and I don’t want it to no longer have a purpose.

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There was a exorcist of users when Unity became the desktop. Maybe this will bring them back. I know I will look forward to trying Ubuntu 18.04 :slight_smile:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2357743

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With a bad back keeping me idle I’m taking a look at Ubuntu-Gnome again. In the past it made me feel like a cow wearing lead boots in a mud patch.

@stevecook172001, MATE would be too… 2010… I guess.

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I want to believe that they chose Gnome because of the Wayland support. It would be really nice to see Canonical assisting Wayland development. I got the feeling that the only one really helping on Wayland development right now is Red Hat/Fedora (I’m not sure if OpenSuse has done any significant work there too apart from maybe 1-2 patches).

With that being said, I would expect Canonical to use a highly customized Gnome and not the vanilla Desktop. If that’s the case they will probably take good ideas form Unity and maybe some from MATE too, all developed of course around the Gnome Shell.

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That’s a good point Ouramov

I do welcome the news, although I’m sad about Ubuntu Phone not happening. And @ThanosApostolou’s thoughts on Wayland echo mine.

Mark Shuttleworth: “What the Unity8 team has delivered so far is beautiful, usable and solid, but I respect that markets, and community, ultimately decide which products grow and which disappear.

Hear, hear! Looks like Canonical finally found a cure for their NIH syndrome.

ALSO:

@wimpy in “Wimpy has a new job” (Sep 16,2016):

“In my new role I will be working on Unity 7 and Unity 8 as my day job.”

I guess Wimpy’s job description just changed. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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What news, they have been working for Mir for a long time, and they will be frustrated.
Uffff, it is a very big defeat, I did not like Unity 8, I stay with MATE desktop … Mutiny beautiful, but I was excited to have another Ubuntu phone improved compared to the first,

Well, to keep fighting and look forward is the best,

Regards…

Convergence I did not see it well, but if I liked more to have a phone with Ubuntu and that when connected to a monitor, the phone function will be disconnected and a desktop operating system will be launched taking advantage of the qualities of the phone,
Processor, Memory, Gpu and Storage Space,

Ubuntu MATE phone …

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Oh God…Yes please…:slight_smile:

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How about a Cinnamon Phone??? Or Better yet, an Fluxbox Phone??? :smiley: :stuck_out_tongue:

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I remember when a phone was exclusively a voice apparatus :slight_smile:

As to this news, I’m happy. Unity, Ubuntu phone, MIR, those were only symptoms of fragmentation, the old Linux disease. Convergence was a stupid idea. 5 years wasted.
The desktop and server is where Canonical should have concentrated efforts all the time, lets hope it’ll be the case now.
I’m excited about 18.04.
Oh, and I want to know about Wimpy’s new job :wink:

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I never was much a fan of Unity but it is a shame to see such a grandiose vision collapse in on itself. Hopefully this will realign Canonical’s efforts back into the desktop because it feels as if they had really allowed it to stagnate for some time now. If so then this could actually have very positive implications for UM and the other official flavors via a stronger base OS to build upon.

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Hallo

Wishes put aside, this is a subject worth following:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/29/jollas-sailfish-os-now-certified-as-russias-first-android-alternative/

also:
http://www.puzzlephone.com/

and of course:
https://www.fairphone.com/en/

The best way to go… perhaps one of these two phones running sailfish?:slight_smile:

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Saw that yesterday in the ubuntu newsgroup (which has been mostly swamped by trolls).

I always thought Unity was a POS but maybe that’s just me. I’m not much impressed with systemd. And i’m just about tired of going out to find a decent laptop and finding that the industry is following the money and professionals or other power-user types are just about out of luck and maybe, finally, starting to get a little touchy about the situation… well, at least i am.

Maybe it’s time to invent a little money into the Ubuntu-MATE community… not so we can follow Canonical’s example or RedHat’s example of what happens when software is jerked around by children’s parents buying kiddy the latest phone, but so we can have some source of decent stuff to use.

Remember the “Designed For Windows” stickers that get stuck on Windows laptops? Why couldn’t we invent a “Designed For linux” sticker, work with some Chinese manufacturers, and make some bucks to support a decent development effort for a change? IMO the market is begging for it but has no voice.

I kind of thought this might happen. Unity was important for the convergence dream. With Ubuntu phones failing to make a mark, Unity fell victim to the effect. It’s good to go back to things as they were. GNOME and Wayland will benefit from this I hope. :slight_smile:

I think I can see the next five years;

  • Canonical adopts GNOME shell as their desktop (begrudgingly)
  • Canonical works with GNOME team to bring some of Unity’s ideas into GNOME (maybe)
  • Canonical and GNOME work together on a simplified version of the interface for phones
  • GNOME makes convergence happen with GNOME shell for desktop and mobile
  • Canonical unveils prototype Ubuntu phone with GNOME Mobile

The dream is not dead. It’s only in the hands of GNOME team now. This does mean, however that MATE is at risk of becoming nothing more than a panel-based GTK3 UI that would feel sorely out of place with other GNOME apps.

The alternative exists today : get Sailfish OS on a Fairphone…

Happy I did not purchase a BQ tablet!
The good news is, Ubuntu should now focus more on the desktop beyond Unity and Mir development.
I have the feeling that on the main Ubuntu flavor (the Unity one) there was little improvement to remark between each 6-month release cycle in the last years. Hopefully that should change, and all flavors will benefit for this upstream work.

The power of GNU compels you! You must leave now! Now! In the name of St IGNUcius, leave this distro for another!

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@Wimpy,

Not sure where to post this, please feel free to move it to a more suitable location.

Sincere question, will recent Canonical news (dropping Unity and returning to GNOME) impact on Ubuntu MATE? Depending on the type of GNOME interface adopted/created for Ubuntu, wonder if Ubuntu MATE + Ubuntu GNOME = (the new) Ubuntu?

May I also add, I sincerely hope you are not affected by Canonical’s employee reductions.

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