randomizer wrote:Ubuntu Cutesy Edition, I like it.
Cubuntu?
Seriously, Shuttleworth is taking a longer term approach. Early Unity may have left a sour taste, but very few sampled that version, so it doesn't matter. What does matter is the future of hardware, and addressing that. Desktop computing will live on at the corporate cubicle and the desks of people who deal with data access and writing. But even in that non-portable environment, the touch screen will be welcome by the generation who grew up with iPhones and Androids. The mouse will die off, and with it unfriendly interfaces such as Windows XP and the present Gnome. Windows 7 and KDE4 are designed with this future in mind, and can be modified to meet it. Unity is almost there, and Shuttleworth sees it as the shortest route, and perhaps also the one over which he can have the most influence. It is well known that he has been frustrated with the direction of Gnome for several years.
I'm not sure where such projects as Mint fit in here. Mint has existed as a better Gnome, and it is that indeed. That may be good enough for the next year or three, but in the long term, Mint will have to offer a new reason to use it. A better Unity? Some other touch centered desktop? Just offering "works out of the box" will no longer be enough. Ubuntu is pretty much that right now, as 10.10 offers to install proprietary codecs with a simple check off box during the installation.
Interesting times ahead.