I've noticed that gnome-shell is not provided in the repositories for Natty. It used to be available in universe, from Karmic to Maverick. Why is this no longer the case?
I strongly believe that GNOME Shell should be available in the repositories, and preferably in main. There is already too much talk about Ubuntu moving away from GNOME. Removing gnome-shell from the repositories will encourage that misconception. I personally remain somewhat sceptical about both Unity and GNOME Shell, but I loudly applaud the efforts of both projects to innovate and modernize the desktop. I also think both projects show great promise, and I'm really looking forward to see how they progress as they mature and are exposed to a greater audience. And I am a little concerned that by both switching to use Unity by default and removing the main competitor -- GNOME Shell -- from the repositories, it may seem like Ubuntu is using its power as the most popular distro to eliminate competition. You will get Unity for free, it will be installed and used by default. GNOME Shell, on the other hand... You'll need to search the web, try to find a good PPA, add the repository and then install it -- if you're really that interested. I am really hesitant to mention the comparison that automatically springs to my mind: Microsoft killed Netscape by providing Internet Explorer for free and, more importantly, installing it by default. No doubt, it's quite an efficient means of ridding oneself of competition, but it really doesn't seem to be in the spirit of Ubuntu. I don't want to come across as accusing anyone of doing that. But I am concerned that's the way people will interpret it and that it'll help fuel tribalism. I strongly believe that the competition between GNOME Shell and Unity will bring out the best in both of them, but that will require both of them to be exposed to as vast an audience as possible. I'm not saying that GNOME Shell should be promoted or installed by default, only that it should be available from the repositories, at the very least in universe. I think that by promoting it to main, that would send a strong signal that Canonical and Ubuntu are not in conflict with GNOME. Also, if people are able to easily try GNOME Shell, then if people do stick with it, developers of Unity has a much better chance of learning why they do so, which will enable them to improve. The same would be true for GNOME Shell, of course: if people try it and chooses to use Unity instead, then they will have the opportunity to learn. The question, therefore, is "is Ubuntu going to enable the community around it to be able to improve?". These are the important things in the free software community, and if Ubuntu can do that, then it will have done something important, that will be appreciated... :) In summary: The current situation makes Unity a symbol of conflict and an excuse for tribalism, which is as ironic as it is sad. The best solution is to promote it to main. Thanks for reading, Jo-Erlend Schinstad -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop