After a couple of Alpha and Beta releases of Ubuntu 17.04, which were called “boring” by many users, Canonical boss Mark Shuttleworth just dropped a big bombshell. In a blog post, which is shocking in many regards, Shuttleworth announced that Canonical is making some big changes and ending its investment in Unity 8. That isn’t all. Canonical will also ditch the phone and convergence shell.
As a result, Ubuntu will switch back to default GNOME desktop environment for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, which is slated to arrive next year. He said, “I’m writing to let you know that we will end our investment in Unity8, the phone and convergence shell. We will shift our default Ubuntu desktop back to GNOME for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.”
Shuttleworth further said that Canonical will continue to produce the “most usable open source desktop in the world.” He also added that the company will continue to work on maintaining the existing LTS releases and work with the partners to innovate.
Shuttleworth said that his convergence vision was wrong and perceived as fragmentation. He also iterated that Ubuntu IoT and cloud story is excellent and Canonical will continue to focus on them. He ended his post by calling it a very difficult decision on a personal level. Read his full announcement here.
