Is Ubuntu's Brand-New Unity Interface a Good Thing?

Are you excited about Ubuntu's move to a brand-new interface? Ubuntu 11.04 (codenamed Natty Narwhal) drops in just days, and it has a shiny new UI called Unity that keeps sparking controversy. The new interface totally replaces GNOME panel with a global menu (a lot like Mac's OSX operating system) and--in yet another Mac-emulating move--adds an application launcher/dock to the left side of the screen.

Since Unity is a relatively young project, customization options are light. Unlike the mature GNOME project, Unity can't easily be changed to fit the user's needs, so what you see seems to be pretty much what you get. At this point, it seems like Ubuntu users may not even be able to adjust the location of the dock on their screen. Ubuntu is clearly striving to create and deliver a very specific experience with their flagship releases, with customization being a secondary (possibly tertiary) concern.

Personally, I don't really mind so much, as long as the interface choices they make are good and work well in most situations. There was a time for me when customization of the computing experience was king of my concerns. Those days are long gone--I just don't have the time to mess with that stuff. If it works well out of the box and is still Free Software at the core, then I'm all in. That's one of the reasons I choose Ubuntu as my primary Linux distribution. If Ubuntu stops offering the small level of customization that I need, then I'll simply switch to Xubuntu, the officially supported Ubuntu derivative that uses the simple (yet surprisingly functional) XFCE desktop.

Many object to Ubuntu choosing to break with the GNOME project, since they are almost ready to release their own next-generation desktop, the GNOME Shell. On the one hand, I understand this--Ubuntu has been a longtime supporter of the GNOME project, and GNOME has been the primary Ubuntu interface since the beginning. Yet, Ubuntu's corporate sponsor, Canonical, has also been explicit since the beginning that they are in this for business reasons, and are creating an end-user product with a specific commercial goal and vision in mind. This wouldn't be the first time that Ubuntu/Canonical took matters into their own hands if they felt that an existing software project wasn't meeting their needs. Think of the creation of Ubuntu itself (basically a fork of Debian with extra little improvements). While I readily admit that this is a drastic strategy and strains parts of the Ubuntu community, it isn't exactly surprising.

I understand and share reservations regarding Ubuntu's new interface direction with Unity. Yet, I am hopeful that the Ubuntu developers will do what they've done consistently in the past--release a great, intuitive operating system that looks good and is easy to use. If Unity helps Ubuntu accomplish this, then I'm ready to give it a fair shake.