Hey!
Ubuntu Unity is Dead: Desktop will switch back to GNOME next year
After six years of developing a decently working desktop on their own, Canonical has decided to go back to its open source roots. Starting in 2018 with Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu will ship with GNOME 3 (or 4 by then?) as its default desktop.
When developers were unable to get the next version of Unity, Unity 8, stable enough to use as a default desktop, Mark Shuttleworth and cohorts took stock and made the tough choice to stop duplicating the efforts of truly open source desktops.
Unity started out to near universal jeers by the Linux crowd. They persevered until Unity 7 became a well functioning desktop deserving respect. Then it looks like they dropped the ball on Unity 8. Game over.
This isn't a bad thing. GNOME, KDE, Mate, Cinnamon, LXDE, XFCE, OpenBox, PekWM, Pantheon, Enlightenment, and Deepin, plus more are available to be used. There are dedicated Ubuntu programming teams for various Ubuntu "flavors," Kubuntu (KDE desktop), Ubuntu Mate, Lubuntu (LXDE), Xubuntu (XFCE), Ubuntu Budgie (Budgie desktop not mentioned above), holy crap there are a lot of choices!
And that's what Linux is all about
: choices. The users determine what will live and what will die because they're in charge. The Linux community CARES about what you want and respects your judgment.
Me? I'm off to download the KDE Plasma desktop and the GNOME 3 desktop to begin with. I've looked at Enlightenment once and was intrigued. And maybe I need to check out Budgie, since there's a dedicated Ubuntu flavor for that. Cool stuff!