Last week was undoubtedly starring Ubuntu. The desktop shift within Ubuntu and the demise of Unity 8 and Canonical's Convergence are creating rivers of digital ink. Maybe because of it, Mark Shuttleworth has decided to expand the information on the future of Ubuntu and the relationship with the latest news.
Definitely Gnome Shell will be the default desktop for Ubuntu 18.04, but it will not be another version but Ubuntu will work and invest in the project to make the desktop more functional and productive.
Thus, since Ubuntu 18.04 will be an LTS version, Ubuntu will work to make Gnome Shell fully stable and functional (at least for Ubuntu LTS users) for the above version.
Unity 8 will not come to Ubuntu but what will happen to Unity 7? Mark Shuttleworth has reported that the Canonical desktop will remain in the official Ubuntu repositories, being able to install and use since Unity 7 is a fully functional desktop.
Unity 7 will remain an available option within Ubuntu repositories
This is a ray of hope for many users who used Unity for not using the Gnome Shell. They will be able to continue using Unity 7 without having to switch to Gnome. Although Ubuntu 16.04 users will have it installed when they upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04.
Mir will go ahead, but it won't be the standard Canonical wanted it to be. This means that its development will slow down and possibly Wayland will also come to Ubuntu, something that has been requested by many Ubuntu developers. Snap and Ubuntu Core will be the centerpieces of Canonical and Ubuntu, something that is already giving very good results and it seems that it will continue.
Mark Shuttleworth has talked about these changes, but it is something that still does not convince the users who bet and opted for the Convergence. We will have to wait to test Gnome and Ubuntu 18.04 to know if the change has really been worth it Do not you think?