Ubuntu – What’s the latest, stable version of Ubuntu that doesn’t use Unity

Unity is a desktop shell for GNOME. This is not the same as a totally new desktop environment. A desktop shell is the interface that you use. Unity will still use the same GNOME apps and libraries that the current desktop does. GNOME shell is an example of another shell for GNOME.

Unity is developed by Canonical for Ubuntu. It is dual licensed under the GPL and LGPL (version 3). It was originally developed for the netbook edition but is going to be modified to be suitable for the desktop.

Currently, it is not suitable for desktops.

It consists of a top bar, similar to the normal gnome-panel but not the same. Instead of the Applications/Places/System menus is an Ubuntu icon that opens up an overlay called the dash which allows launching of files, folders and applications. It also has a global menu, that embeds the File, Edit etc. menubar from applications into the panel. It shows the menu of the currently focussed window. When windows are maximised, their controls (close, minimise, restore) are embedded into the panel as well. These are space saving features. The desktop edition is planned to not have the global menu because on a large screen it would move the menu far away from the windows being used and so the user would have to move their mouse all the way to the top to get to the menus.

There is a launcher and dock on the left hand side of the screen. This can't be moved. It is planned that for the desktop edition it will be detachable and be able to go on any side of the screen. It is also likely to have an autohide feature.

The expose style feature is like the scale plugin for compiz. It gives you an overview of your windows and allows you to switch between them.

Unity for the netbook edition currently used the mutter window manager. This has had some performance problems so it is being replaced with compiz for better performance. It is planned that it should gracefully degrade if 3D accelerated hardware is not available.

Unity netbook interface:

The interface for the desktop is currently being discussed: Launchpad Blueprint

What is GNOME?

GNOME is a lot of things. Usually, GNOME refers to GNOME Desktop Environment. Quoting the Arch Wiki:

A desktop environment bundles together a variety of X clients to provide common graphical user interface elements such as icons, toolbars, wallpapers, and desktop widgets. Additionally, most desktop environments include a set of integrated applications and utilities.

It is created and maintained by the GNOME foundation. They are the driving force behind a large number of popular applications, as well as the providers of a set of libraries such as GTK, GObject and even a language called Vala, which are used to build the applications in the GNOME DE, and are part of the GNOME project as a whole.

There are two relatively well known versions of GNOME: GNOME2, long since obsolete and dead, and GNOME3, the current version. Ubuntu have tracked GNOME (whichever version was current) for as long as I can remember. You can see GNOME2 in action in Ubuntu 10.04, for example. Once GNOME2 went away, a classic mode variously called GNOME Classic, GNOME Flashback (and possibly other names), with nowhere near the flexibility or customizability of GNOME2 was introduced. It just sort-of looked like GNOME2.

GNOME2 was forked to become MATE. MATE is the closest experience to GNOME2 you can get now, but with feature updates. Ubuntu MATE is now an official flavour.

GNOME3 is what you see when you look at the GNOME website, or when you install Ubuntu GNOME, and is underneath many applications in Ubuntu, and Cinnamon. MATE is adding support for GTK3, the library underneath GNOME3. Typically when end-users speak of GNOME3, they mean GNOME Shell (since that is what you see).

How does it relate to Unity?

You can think of GNOME as the parent of the Ubuntu default Desktop Environment (DE) (or an uncle, at least). It is the upstream project of many Ubuntu applications.

Ubuntu's default desktop environment uses most of the GNOME applications with a few changes:

• Unity instead of GNOME Shell (up to Ubuntu 17.04)
• Firefox instead of Web (once called Epiphany)
• Thunderbird instead of Evolution
• LibreOffice Write instead of Abiword
• some patches to GNOME Terminal and Nautilus, I think.
• Ambiance GTK theme instead of Adwaita
• and perhaps a few more

Unity and GNOME Shell have a few similarities:

• A top panel
• A dock
• A searchable replacement for the menu system for listing applications.

However, I think the similarities end there.

The Ubuntu GNOME distribution uses GNOME except the few cases where applications have been patched (like GNOME Terminal).

Relevant reading:

1. What is the relationship between Unity, Gnome, Gnome 3, Compiz, Metacity, and LightDM?
2. What kinds of desktop environments and shells are available?
3. When installing packages (particularly those with graphical UIs) how do you determine which is fitting for your distribution?
4. What is the default desktop environment for Ubuntu 13.10?
5. What is a desktop environment, session and shell?