[nol13]

People (me) were just mad because seemingly in the blink of an eye they went from having a stable mature linux desktop, sometimes even approaching "it just works," to having that ripped away and replaced with a choice between [radical new desktop] or xfce. Unity or GNOME Shell might really be great, but that's a huge change to force on unsuspecting neckbeards.

Wish Canonical would have just created MATE themselves.

[dopeboy]

This is exactly right, it was timing.

I have been using Ubuntu since 2005 and it was a rough grind on the "just-works" front in those beginning days. By 2010, desktop Ubuntu was in great shape and laptop Ubuntu was nearly there (moreso on suspend/resume, not so much on battery). People were just starting to breathe and then Unity came and threw any semblance of stability out the window.

[timellis-smith]

Lucid and maverick where possibly the best desktop experiences I've had. Going to Natty (and oneric), with its many bugs was such a huge shock that I pretty much stopped using Ubuntu and switched to Mint