{"id":269,"date":"2017-04-10T10:40:32","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T05:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269"},"modified":"2017-04-10T10:40:32","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T05:10:32","slug":"ubuntu-retires-unity-desktop-switching-back-to-gnome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269","title":{"rendered":"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Approximately Six year ago, Canonical made #Unity the default shell in Ubuntu. This was acclaimed to be a step to bring Ubuntu to hitherto unavailable devices like Tablets and Mobiles. I personally was not amused. The unity shell was available in one for or the other for sometime before that. Namely in the netbook remix of the Ubuntu.<br \/>\nLast week, Mark Shuttleworth, Founder of Ubuntu and Canonical, confirmed in a post on the company\u2019s official blog today that the company is giving up on Unity and that the default Ubuntu desktop will be shifted back to GNOME for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.<br \/>\nShuttleworth reiterated the company\u2019s commitment to the Ubuntu desktop that millions of users across the globe rely on. It says that Canonical will continue to produce this open source desktop, maintain existing LTE releases, work with commercial partners to distribute Ubuntu, and provide support to corporate customers. Nothing is changing on that front.<br \/>\nHe points out that the community viewed the Unity effort as fragmentation and not innovation even though the aim was to deliver it as a free software, an alternative to the closed alternatives currently available to device manufacturers.<br \/>\nIt is out of respect for the market\u2019s wishes (or mounting pressure from the community) that Canonical has decided to shelve this project and shift the desktop back to #GNOME starting next year.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Approximately Six year ago, Canonical made #Unity the default shell in Ubuntu. This was acclaimed to be a step to bring Ubuntu to hitherto unavailable devices like Tablets and Mobiles. I personally was not amused. The unity shell was available in one for or the other for sometime before that. Namely in the netbook remix &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[331,518],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gnome","tag-unity"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.0.1 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Approximately Six year ago, Canonical made #Unity the default shell in Ubuntu. This was acclaimed to be a step to bring Ubuntu to hitherto unavailable devices like Tablets and Mobiles. I personally was not amused. The unity shell was available in one for or the other for sometime before that. Namely in the netbook remix\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ramkumar Sundarakalatharan\"\/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 5.0.0.1\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nocturnalknight&#039;s Lair - Observations of a Random Wanderer!\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME - Nocturnalknight&#039;s Lair\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Approximately Six year ago, Canonical made #Unity the default shell in Ubuntu. This was acclaimed to be a step to bring Ubuntu to hitherto unavailable devices like Tablets and Mobiles. I personally was not amused. The unity shell was available in one for or the other for sometime before that. Namely in the netbook remix\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-10T05:10:32+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-10T05:10:32+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nocturnalknight\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME - Nocturnalknight&#039;s Lair\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Approximately Six year ago, Canonical made #Unity the default shell in Ubuntu. This was acclaimed to be a step to bring Ubuntu to hitherto unavailable devices like Tablets and Mobiles. I personally was not amused. The unity shell was available in one for or the other for sometime before that. Namely in the netbook remix\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@nocturnalknight\" \/>\n\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"aioseo-schema\">\n\t\t\t{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BlogPosting\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269#blogposting\",\"name\":\"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME - Nocturnalknight's Lair\",\"headline\":\"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?author=2#author\"},\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/cropped-Ram-Profile.avif\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/#articleImage\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512},\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-10T10:40:32+01:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-10T10:40:32+01:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269#webpage\"},\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269#webpage\"},\"articleSection\":\"Uncategorized, Gnome, Unity\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269#breadcrumblist\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com#listItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?cat=1#listItem\",\"name\":\"Uncategorized\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?cat=1#listItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Uncategorized\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?cat=1\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269#listItem\",\"name\":\"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME\"},\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com#listItem\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269#listItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME\",\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?cat=1#listItem\",\"name\":\"Uncategorized\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Nocturnalknight's Lair\",\"description\":\"Observations of a Random Wanderer!\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/cropped-Ram-Profile.avif\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269\\\/#organizationLogo\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269\\\/#organizationLogo\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/nocturnalknight\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/nocturnalknight\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?author=2#author\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?author=2\",\"name\":\"Ramkumar Sundarakalatharan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269#authorImage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/818bc4a4d5681de6957f83aca2601d598459bf37a0a8b17d5abb1a889e2b9298?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"width\":96,\"height\":96,\"caption\":\"Ramkumar Sundarakalatharan\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269\",\"name\":\"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME - Nocturnalknight's Lair\",\"description\":\"Approximately Six year ago, Canonical made #Unity the default shell in Ubuntu. This was acclaimed to be a step to bring Ubuntu to hitherto unavailable devices like Tablets and Mobiles. I personally was not amused. The unity shell was available in one for or the other for sometime before that. Namely in the netbook remix\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/#website\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?p=269#breadcrumblist\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?author=2#author\"},\"creator\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/?author=2#author\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-10T10:40:32+01:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-10T10:40:32+01:00\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Nocturnalknight's Lair\",\"description\":\"Observations of a Random Wanderer!\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nocturnalknight.com\\\/#organization\"}}]}\n\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO -->\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME - Nocturnalknight's Lair","description":"Approximately Six year ago, Canonical made #Unity the default shell in Ubuntu. This was acclaimed to be a step to bring Ubuntu to hitherto unavailable devices like Tablets and Mobiles. I personally was not amused. The unity shell was available in one for or the other for sometime before that. Namely in the netbook remix","canonical_url":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269","robots":"max-image-preview:large","keywords":"","webmasterTools":{"miscellaneous":""},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269#blogposting","name":"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME - Nocturnalknight's Lair","headline":"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?author=2#author"},"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cropped-Ram-Profile.avif","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/#articleImage","width":512,"height":512},"datePublished":"2017-04-10T10:40:32+01:00","dateModified":"2017-04-10T10:40:32+01:00","inLanguage":"en-GB","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269#webpage"},"isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269#webpage"},"articleSection":"Uncategorized, Gnome, Unity"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269#breadcrumblist","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com#listItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?cat=1#listItem","name":"Uncategorized"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?cat=1#listItem","position":2,"name":"Uncategorized","item":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?cat=1","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269#listItem","name":"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME"},"previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com#listItem","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269#listItem","position":3,"name":"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME","previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?cat=1#listItem","name":"Uncategorized"}}]},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/#organization","name":"Nocturnalknight's Lair","description":"Observations of a Random Wanderer!","url":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cropped-Ram-Profile.avif","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269\/#organizationLogo","width":512,"height":512},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269\/#organizationLogo"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/nocturnalknight","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/nocturnalknight\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?author=2#author","url":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?author=2","name":"Ramkumar Sundarakalatharan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269#authorImage","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/818bc4a4d5681de6957f83aca2601d598459bf37a0a8b17d5abb1a889e2b9298?s=96&d=mm&r=g","width":96,"height":96,"caption":"Ramkumar Sundarakalatharan"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269#webpage","url":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269","name":"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME - Nocturnalknight's Lair","description":"Approximately Six year ago, Canonical made #Unity the default shell in Ubuntu. This was acclaimed to be a step to bring Ubuntu to hitherto unavailable devices like Tablets and Mobiles. I personally was not amused. The unity shell was available in one for or the other for sometime before that. Namely in the netbook remix","inLanguage":"en-GB","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/#website"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269#breadcrumblist"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?author=2#author"},"creator":{"@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?author=2#author"},"datePublished":"2017-04-10T10:40:32+01:00","dateModified":"2017-04-10T10:40:32+01:00"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/","name":"Nocturnalknight's Lair","description":"Observations of a Random Wanderer!","inLanguage":"en-GB","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/#organization"}}]},"og:locale":"en_GB","og:site_name":"Nocturnalknight's Lair - Observations of a Random Wanderer!","og:type":"article","og:title":"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME - Nocturnalknight's Lair","og:description":"Approximately Six year ago, Canonical made #Unity the default shell in Ubuntu. This was acclaimed to be a step to bring Ubuntu to hitherto unavailable devices like Tablets and Mobiles. I personally was not amused. The unity shell was available in one for or the other for sometime before that. Namely in the netbook remix","og:url":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269","article:published_time":"2017-04-10T05:10:32+00:00","article:modified_time":"2017-04-10T05:10:32+00:00","twitter:card":"summary_large_image","twitter:site":"@nocturnalknight","twitter:title":"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME - Nocturnalknight's Lair","twitter:description":"Approximately Six year ago, Canonical made #Unity the default shell in Ubuntu. This was acclaimed to be a step to bring Ubuntu to hitherto unavailable devices like Tablets and Mobiles. I personally was not amused. The unity shell was available in one for or the other for sometime before that. Namely in the netbook remix","twitter:creator":"@nocturnalknight"},"aioseo_meta_data":{"post_id":"269","title":null,"description":null,"keywords":null,"keyphrases":null,"focus_keyword":null,"additional_keywords":null,"truseo_locale":null,"primary_term":null,"canonical_url":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"og_object_type":"default","og_image_type":"default","og_image_custom_url":null,"og_image_custom_fields":null,"og_image_url":null,"og_image_width":null,"og_image_height":null,"og_video":null,"og_custom_url":null,"og_article_section":null,"og_article_tags":null,"twitter_use_og":false,"twitter_card":"default","twitter_image_type":"default","twitter_image_custom_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_fields":null,"twitter_image_url":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"schema_type":"default","schema_type_options":null,"schema":{"blockGraphs":[],"customGraphs":[],"default":{"data":{"Article":[],"Course":[],"Dataset":[],"FAQPage":[],"Movie":[],"Person":[],"Product":[],"ProductReview":[],"Car":[],"Recipe":[],"Service":[],"SoftwareApplication":[],"WebPage":[]},"graphName":"","isEnabled":true},"graphs":[]},"pillar_content":false,"robots_default":true,"robots_noindex":false,"robots_noarchive":false,"robots_nosnippet":false,"robots_nofollow":false,"robots_noimageindex":false,"robots_noodp":false,"robots_notranslate":false,"robots_max_snippet":null,"robots_max_videopreview":null,"robots_max_imagepreview":"large","priority":null,"frequency":null,"local_seo":null,"limit_modified_date":false,"ai":null,"breadcrumb_settings":null,"seo_analyzer_scan_date":null,"created":"2026-08-19 11:29:29","updated":"2026-08-19 11:29:29"},"aioseo_breadcrumb":"<div class=\"aioseo-breadcrumbs\"><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\" title=\"Home\">Home<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?cat=1\" title=\"Uncategorized\">Uncategorized<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\tUbuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com"},{"label":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?cat=1"},{"label":"Ubuntu Retires Unity, Desktop Switching Back To GNOME","link":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/?p=269"}],"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocturnalknight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}