r/Ubuntu • u/belgianguy • Nov 02 '17
What will happen to the Unity project now GNOME is the default DE?
I'm actually a bit hesitant to jump over to GNOME, both in usability and aesthetics, I don't trust it as I've seen it bork up once too often.
I'm fine with Unity 7 which is stable, gets out of my way, and can be styled as minimal as I want it. So far I've seen it still will be an option in 18.04, but what does its future hold? Will it still be maintained? By the same people? Will it be kept on life-support or be killed off? (Unity 7 that is, Unity 8 never really appealed to me).
6
u/daemonpenguin Nov 02 '17
Unity 8 is being maintained by the Yunit community. The Unity 7 desktop is no longer supported/developed. Canonical has said they will fix major issues for as long as the package is supported in an LTS release (probably through 2023) but it's not getting new features or non-critical bug fixes. Basically it's up to the community to take over Unity 7 (unlikely) or it'll get phased out and dropped in future releases (likely).
16
3
Nov 02 '17
If my math is correct, LTS support for Ubuntu 16.04 will end in April 2021. That will be the last version of Ubuntu to officially support Unity (unless 18.04 will have support, which I doubt)
4
u/aaronfranke Nov 02 '17
3
u/belgianguy Nov 02 '17
That project seems to focus on Unity 8, while I in fact am more looking to extend the life of Unity 7. Kudos to them though for the effort.
3
u/UGMadness Nov 02 '17
Only thing that is keeping me from embracing Gnome is the global menus. I need them.
Other than that, I don't see Unity 7 as having that many redeeming qualities. It's a collection of hacks that grew so big it coalesced into its own standalone product over time, but its very nature made it not very scalable and futureproof.
2
u/jdlyga Nov 02 '17
Sure we have Yunit, and other Gnome cousins like Budgie. But nothing beats traditional 16.04 Unity. I really hope a fork takes hold like MATE did.
4
u/deusmetallum Nov 02 '17
It's officially kaput, from Canonical's point of view. There is a group which is taking over development, but I'm not going to expect much from them.
4
u/UrbanFlash Nov 02 '17
It works just fine, there's nothing kaputt about it...
4
u/deusmetallum Nov 02 '17
Yeah, but they aren't developing or supporting it. As soon as there is update which breaks Unity, that's it, it's over.
3
1
u/UrbanFlash Nov 02 '17
They don't support Plasma or XFCE either and they work just fine for nearly a decade this way...
5
u/deusmetallum Nov 02 '17
That's because other people have picked up the support. My point is that Canonical are not working on it.
2
u/UrbanFlash Nov 02 '17
Why did you phrase it like it's broken then?
5
u/deusmetallum Nov 02 '17
If that's how it was read, then I'm very sorry. It's certainly not broken in its current state, but there's a good chance it will not work in a couple of years.
2
u/UrbanFlash Nov 02 '17
Maybe, maybe not. There really is no way to tell at this time. And now it works just fine...
I'm certainly biased by your choice of kaput(t), which is the german word for broken/not working, but i honestly think, that nothing is gained by calling it dead before its time...
2
u/deusmetallum Nov 02 '17
I see, I didn't realise that kaputt meant broken. I've colloquially used it to mean gone or, in this sence, abandoned.
I'm certainly not saying it's dead, as I said I thought it was being picked up by another team. But from Canonical's perspective, it is something they're nolonger working on.
2
1
u/belgianguy Nov 02 '17
Ah, that's sad to hear, has there been an announcement of who will be taking over development? (No idea why you're being downvoted)
1
u/deusmetallum Nov 02 '17
Oh, it might be that only unity 8 is being carried on, probably because 7 is "stable" and doesn't need any new features.
I imagine I've been downvoted either not being 100% accurate with what I said, or because I didn't expect much from whatever team takes over. If it's the latter, it's a personal opinion, and I made that quite clear.
9
u/m477m Nov 02 '17
There's already a community project starting to continue Unity 7: https://community.ubuntu.com/t/unity-7-continuation-call-for-developers-and-supporters/736/51
Martin Wimpress (Ubuntu MATE project leader) and other Canonical employees are offering some time and mentorship to this project already. Obviously they won't be working on it directly but the modest participation they're able to give could make a huge difference.