Ubuntu Returns to Gnome as Its Mobile Plans Shatter
Mark Shuttleworth has resumed the position of CEO of Canonical.
April has been a rough month for Canonical. On April 5, 2017, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth announced that they are abandoning their mobile plans. Shuttleworth wrote in a blog post, “I’m writing to let you know that we will end our investment in Unity8, the phone and convergence shell.”
Ubuntu phones and tablets never really took off. I received a review unit of the device and it lacked core features that a user would expect from a mobile device. Canonical didn’t manage to get big brands on board, and the fate of Ubuntu Mobile was sealed. According to some media reports, Ubuntu mobile devices will stop getting updates after June this year, although Canonical has not released a public advisory. Official Ubuntu Phone and Tablet pages are now showing a 404 error instead of relaying a message about funding the project.
With Unity out of the way, the 18.04 release of Ubuntu will return to a complete Gnome desktop, including the shell. The good news is that an official Gnome flavor of Ubuntu, called Ubuntu Gnome, already exists.
Henceforth, there will be no separate flavor of Ubuntu Gnome. Jeremy Bicha, an Ubuntu Gnome developer wrote in a blog post: “The development teams from both Ubuntu GNOME and Ubuntu Desktop will be merging resources and focusing on a single combined release that provides the best of both GNOME and Ubuntu.”
The Ubuntu Gnome project is working with Canonical teams to figure out how the merging is going to work. It might be prudent for Canonical to move the base of Ubuntu 17.10 to Gnome so that they have enough time to iron out bugs by the the 18.04 long-term release.
Moving back to Gnome might also mean Canonical will adopt Wayland and drop its own display server Mir, but the company has not relayed a message regarding the future of Mir.
In related news, Jane Silber stepped down from the position of CEO of Canonical as Shuttleworth resumes leadership of the company. Canonical also let go of more than 80 employees who were working on projects that Canonical is abandoning.
According to some media outlets, Canonical is seeking outside investors. The Register reported: “These investors determined that Canonical was overstaffed and some projects lacked focus.”
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you've found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Arch Linux 2023.12.01 Released with a Much-Improved Installer
If you've ever wanted to install Arch Linux, now is your time. With the latest release, the archinstall script vastly simplifies the process.
-
Zorin OS 17 Beta Available for Testing
The upcoming version of Zorin OS includes plenty of improvements to take your PC to a whole new level of user-friendliness.
-
Red Hat Migrates RHEL from Xorg to Wayland
If you've been wondering when Xorg will finally be a thing of the past, wonder no more, as Red Hat has made it clear.
-
PipeWire 1.0 Officially Released
PipeWire was created to take the place of the oft-troubled PulseAudio and has finally reached the 1.0 status as a major update with plenty of improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Rocky Linux 9.3 Available for Download
The latest version of the RHEL alternative is now available and brings back cloud and container images for ppc64le along with plenty of new features and fixes.
-
Ubuntu Budgie Shifts How to Tackle Wayland
Ubuntu Budgie has yet to make the switch to Wayland but with a change in approaches, they're finally on track to making it happen.
-
TUXEDO's New Ultraportable Linux Workstation Released
The TUXEDO Pulse 14 blends portability with power, thanks to the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU.
-
AlmaLinux Will No Longer Be "Just Another RHEL Clone"
With the release of AlmaLinux 9.3, the distribution will be built entirely from upstream sources.
-
elementary OS 8 Has a Big Surprise in Store
When elementary OS 8 finally arrives, it will not only be based on Ubuntu 24.04 but it will also default to Wayland for better performance and security.
-
OpenELA Releases Enterprise Linux Source Code
With Red Hat restricting the source for RHEL, it was only a matter of time before those who depended on that source struck out on their own.