[ Thanks to Steven J.
Vaughan-Nichols for this link. ]
“Recently, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu shocked
the Ubuntu Linux world when he announced that the next release of
the popular Linux, Ubuntu 11.04, would use Unity instead of GNOME
as its default desktop interface.“Why move from pure GNOME to Unity? As Shuttleworth explained to
the Ubuntu developers, “Lots of people are already committed to
Unity — the community, desktop users, developers, and platform and
hardware vendors.” In particular, he noted, “Original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) favor Unity. They’re happy to ship it.”“That last part is important. Shuttleworth had told me that
Dell, which he said had sold several million Ubuntu desktops,
laptops, and netbooks, supports the project. In addition, Canonical
has desktop deals in place with Lenovo and Acer. These arrangements
may lead to these, and other, major PC OEMs finally releasing
Ubuntu desktops in the U.S and European markets.”