[ralfn]

That expectation would be wrong. Most Ubuntu users either have a more technical friend that picked the desktop environment for them or they are developers.

I have seen hundreds Ubuntu desktops the last couple of years. Seeing unity was the exception.

Why do you think Canonical moved away from Unity? After the effort and money they invested? Its because such a large group of users was actively avoiding it (myself included - although i like many of its design elements in isolation the execution, the thing being a compiz plugin and the user iteraction design was just unbalanced).

It actually has this Vista like quality where the trade off between power users and casual users ended up worse for both. The unity desktop wasnt the best choice for any group of users, although it may have been the best compromise.

If Canonical has any sense, they just focus all their energy on being the best desktop for developers and monetize from that perspective. The years they wasted trying to compete for a market (desktop consumer) that was going to be eaten from every direction.

Well hindsight is easy i guess