Wow!!! I just read this… Totally unexpected!!! I’ve been reading comments on phoronix for years that Canonical will just drop the whole project, but I always thought that the investment to this project is too much to just drop it. I was totally wrong… Any thoughts??
Mark Shuttleworth’s announcement:
Oh BLOODY HELL.
I don’t give a damn about Mir and Unity and convergence, but I was really counting on Ubuntu Phone to be the alternative to the iOS/Android deadlock.
Edit: thanks for the heads up @ThanosApostolou
I’m personally happy to hear this. I don’t think another platform can break the Android/iOS duopoly, for good or bad. On the desktop, I prefer GNOME to Unity, despite the latter having some good ideas. Ubuntu GNOME is OK, but official support can make it much better. And for things like Wayland, having less fragmentation can even help other desktops like MATE! I do hope they keep snaps on the desktop, because I think the show great potential.
Feel free, if you want, to delete/merge this and make your own post in order to make it look better (I did it in hurry) because I believe it’s a matter that it’s worth it to be discussed.
P.S. I think the phoronix article might get a record on comments 
If they are dumping Unity, why the hell don’t they use Mate as the official desktop?
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.
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 
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.
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.
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. 
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 …
Oh God..Yes please.......
How about a Cinnamon Phone??? Or Better yet, an Fluxbox Phone??? 
I remember when a phone was exclusively a voice apparatus
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 
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.
Hallo
Wishes put aside, this is a subject worth following:
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?
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.