Ubuntu is Shutting Down Unity Project

It seems one of the popular desktop project known as unity is closing down. The ubuntu team has managed to explain why and how in the blog post. But it seems they are not focusing much on the desktop anymore. And for this reason they want to get rid of the unity. It was one of the good project in the last few years. And it has managed to replace some of the good desktops. But for some reason ubuntu thinks they need to focus on the mobile and other projects. And so far based on what the blog post and the reaction goes it seems the ubuntu’s decision is not going to change. In next year onwards, the unity project seems to be getting the cut off. So you can expect that ubuntu falling back to the gnome version 3.

Mir

One of the biggest subproject for the ubuntu was the mir display server. It was meant to compete with the wayland server. And they designed this so as to get the competition for the wayland. And they wanted to push this project for the phone. But it seems the ubuntu tablet and the mobile project is as good as dead. And there seems to be no way for the Mir to get back into the linux community. I am not sure if the Mir and the other closed projects are not hosted for free. But it does seem like the Mir is not available for the open source contribution. And that in itself can be a bad thing.

Unity 8 Mobile

It seems benq and some other companies decided not to use the Ubuntu mobile anymore. And they want to fall back to the Android. This means the phone is no longer has any demand. And soon the support is also going to fade out. So the unity 8 development for the phone is going to stop as well. I think Unity 8 was a good project. And it has managed to do a lot better. But it seems the developers not making apps. Also the amount of effort required for developing mobile apps is not easy anymore. And the funding also made it harder for them to continue with the project.

Desktop

The damage seems to be more for the desktop. I am not sure what can be done in such case. I personally would like to see the desktop surviving. And if that happens. I am sure there are people who want to make use of the unity on the future desktop or variants. I think there are some of the people who would like to use the unity desktop. But if not shipped by default. I think it would be harder to see how that works out. I think unity 8 desktop never reached to the users. But it just means that in future one has to work on many other small things before porting a big change. I hope in future they bring something new to the table.

I think unity is one of the good desktop that you can find. But unfortunately all good things comes to an end. I wish in future the project survives. So far I don’t see there is going to be easy death. I have found reddit community doing some brainstorming on the fork.

Image by pixabay.