Conclusion
Let's see what I wrote in my last Ubuntu review. That was Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver, and I also installed Unity in it, back then. I wrote: "Immediately, everything was better. Unity is sooooo much faster, snappier than Gnome 3. Prettier. Seamless top panel global menu integration. Smarter system settings. You can add a show desktop button. Speed, elegance. A professional desktop. Lightyears ahead of this sad new offering based on Gnome." And then, toward then end: "...the desktop should be more usable for ordinary humans. It's ridiculous that you NEED extensions to use Gnome 3, in addition to all the hacks Canonical introduced to make the system usable. So yes, if you wanna be mediocre go for it."
That was May 2018. We're in November 2024. My conclusion? Similar to the one above. Almost identical. In fact, sadly, the Gnome from back then was MORE usable than what you have now! You could actually change themes easily, without recompiling. If you didn't like a specific color scheme, quick edit, done. Now, you can't do even that. So you either must suffer from awful ergonomics, or go elsewhere. Beyond that, Ubuntu is sort of run-of-the-mill system - dependable, sturdy, mature, not very fun, not very interesting, somewhat bland, with average speed and appeal. Shame, because I know what it can - and could do. As it stands, 14.04 Trusty remains the best, the pinnacle, and hopefully, we will have that again one day.
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