Listen. I get it. Ubuntu is an excellent Linux distribution. The latest version, Ubuntu 10.04 is great. And, I certainly see why there are several Linux distributions based on Ubuntu such as Kubuntu. But, do we really need two new Ubuntu desktops, Unity and Light? Can Canonical do everything that it’s already doing while adding more work to its load?
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, certainly seems to think so. On May 10th, Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical’s founder, announced the two new Ubuntu variants.
The first, Unity, is designed to get the most good out of a netbook’s limited screen real-estate. This is not just a matter of dumping and/or shrinking down icons. Shuttleworth and company are thinning down and rebuilding the GNOME interface to fit the most goodness into a netbook’s 1024X600 display.