14 DAY TRIAL // It's official, the Unity desktop environment is now gone and has been removed from the daily build ISO images of the upcoming Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) operating system.
While updating our Ubuntu 17.10 testing machine, we couldn't help but notice that many GNOME packages have been installed, so after a restart we've discovered that the Unity desktop environment was replaced with a GNOME session, though a GNOME on Wayland session is also available from the LightDM login manager.
We've also downloaded the latest Ubuntu 17.10 daily build ISO images to see if GNOME has become the default desktop environment or not, because, if memory recalls, the Alpha 2 milestone was the target for public testing of Ubuntu 17.10 with GNOME as default desktop instead of Unity. And guess what?
GNOME is now the default desktop environment for Ubuntu 17.10
That's right, GNOME has officially become the default desktop environment for the upcoming Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) release, which means that you can say goodbye to the Unity interface, as well as to the Ubuntu GNOME flavor. But as you can see from the screenshot below, the LightDM login manager remains unchanged.
It's hard to see if any of the old Unity package and their dependencies are still installed (probably they are), but it's normal for a testing release that's not even of Alpha quality yet. And talking about Alpha releases, the first one is expected later this month on the 29th, but only for the opt-in flavors, so not for Ubuntu itself.
There's a lot of work to be done if GNOME is now the default desktop environment, so we'll try to keep you guys up to date with all the changes that will happen until Ubuntu 17.10 hits Final Beta on September 28. The final release of Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) hits the streets on October 19, 2017.
