[tannhaeuser]

I don't think the rant about Ubuntu Unity is fair. If anything, Ubuntu 18.04/20.04 LTS releases based on Gnome shell are serious regressions in so many ways (FF not opening new windows on top, std menu missing wtf, etc etc) that I'm considering something KDE-based next.

[franciscop]

Strongly agreed; Ubuntu 14 and 16 were amazing to run, and 18+ are a huge mess with full menus compressed into burgers icons.

Connecting to WIFI takes me 8 clicks! As someone who regularly goes to cafes, this is very frustrating:

1. Generic top-right menu

2. Open wifi submenu.

3. Turn On

modal closes automatically!

4. Generic top-right menu

5. Wifi submenu

6. Select Network

popup opens

7. Click the desired network

8. Connect

[pjmlp]

It made me move into XFCE, GNOME focus in GJS and extensions everywhere is just too much.

KDE would have been the alternative.

I really don't get the hate against Unity.

[theandrewbailey]

I've been using Xubuntu for over 10 years.

[mrkeen]

Well Unity sucked and Gnome 3 also kinda sucked. These are relative terms - I only compare them to what existed at the time.

Right now I'm using Ubuntu Mate 20.04 since Ubuntu 20.04 won't run on my machine. After a fresh install it just boots up into a black screen, and I can't ctrl-alt-f2 my way into a terminal, etc.

I've always found KDE pretty decent.

[beagle3]

Unity is still an apt-get install away. I’m using it with 20.04 and haven’t missed a thing, even though it’s not getting any new features.

[fiddlerwoaroof]

Yeah, I think Unity happened because of Gnome 3? Gnome 2 EOLed and Canonical didn’t like Gnome 3.

[bregma]

There are a number of reasons why Unity happened, all of them good. Difficulties getting Gnome 2 changes upstream, differences in vision between the Ubuntu desktop needs and the Gnome developers, and delivery date issues with Gnome 3 were among some of the reasons, yes.

There was a very vocal minority of shouties in various forums that spewed their venemous hate at Unity but by and large most people who tried it really liked it and I still get very positive feedback from non-technical users even today when they find out I was heavily involved in that project.

The criticism levied in the feature article is the same tired old one that boiled down to "I didn't like it because it wasn't the Microsoft Windows I used when I was first learning." There is always a certain merit to the "all change is bad" argument, but since it's entirely based on visceral reaction and not technical merit or rational discourse, it can be difficult to use to convince others without appearing petulant.

[fiddlerwoaroof]

I'm mostly sympathetic to the decision to leave Gnome: I myself abandoned KDE after the 3 -> 4 transition and then Gnome after the 2 -> 3 transition. I just never found the Unity desktop pleasant to use, so I ended up running tiling window managers for a while.

[beagle3]

Unity happened mostly because Canonical was betting on convergence - which neither Gnome2 nor Gnome3 were practical for.

Supposedly, it’s also super nice on mobile and tablet, I didn’t get a chance to try.

If you want gnome 2, Mint is still maintaining it as MATE and it’s in the Ubuntu repositories.