For a very long time, Ubuntu was at the heart of the Linux revolution. The leader, the heart, and soul on the quest for Linux to win the desktop operating systems wars. With the then GNOME and GNOME 2 desktop environments, the task was clear, the job was cut out and then in 2017, it has not happened yet. Ubuntu in the search to become the number one choice for desktop users replaced its default desktop from GNOME to Canonical’s very own crafted Unity desktop. The Unity desktop environment did a lot right with a more modern outlook and a future towards a convergent desktop with mobile. Regardless, a lot of Ubuntu fans were disappointed in the direction that Ubuntu had taken and out of their frustrations, many jumped.

Ubuntu has made the switch from the Unity desktop environment to GNOME 3 and this can be seen already in the current daily builds of Ubuntu 17.10. Initially, the plan was to use Unity in this iteration and switch to GNOME 3 in 18.04 but I bet Canonical themselves could not wait to make the change. Why put effort into something that is definitely going to be short lived as the expense of what is inevitably coming. So the switch has been made and I believe this is going to please the multitude of users who jumped ship 6 years ago when Canonical made the controversial decision to switch to Unity.