Ubuntu founder explains why he decided to abandon Unity

Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, shared more details about why Ubuntu chose to abandon Unity. Ubuntu 17.10, released last week, is the first Ubuntu without the Unity desktop since it was launched in 2011.

Founder Mark Shuttleworth stated that he has reached a consensus with other "leaders" of Canonical that they should make the company a public company. So in order to attract potential investors, the company has to focus on its profitable areas-but Unity, Ubuntu phones, Unity 8 and integration are not profitable. Lack of profitability may mean the death of Unity, but the broader Ubuntu project is very healthy.

Mark Shuttleworth said that one of his proudest things is that in the past seven years, Ubuntu has become completely sustainable. Even if he is hit by a car tomorrow, the Ubuntu project can continue to develop. He also said, is this a bit magical? Such a world-class enterprise platform is completely free, but it is sustainable.

In addition, Mark Shuttleworth stated that Canonical will focus on cloud and IoT development.

Losing Unity may be a big blow to desktop users, but it helps balance the rest of the company.