Experimental remix finally brings the former Unity 8 back to Ubuntu Ubuntu Unity Noble Numbat is out, and alongside it, a very much not long-term-supported new variant of the distro: Ubuntu Lomiri. Along with the official Ubuntu 24.04 "Noble Numbat" release which appeared in late April was a new version of Ubuntu Unity, as there has been since Ubuntu 22.10. Although it's only a modest change …
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Personally, I prefer it. Best Linux desktop there has been so far, IMHO.
But if you want KDE there is already Kubuntu or KDE Neon. If you want LXDE, well, you can't any more, but there is Lubuntu with LXQt. So I don't see what you are asking, TBH. These are already available.
LXDE is dead. The author has moved on to LXQt and he's not going back. Even Raspberry Pi OS has dropped LXDE now.
... Unity was (is?) dope, especially against Gnome 3.x/4x. The bit I liked/respected the most about it was how easy it was (well, would be/have been if I had sat down and tried to learn how) to navigate the entire desktop with keyboard shortcuts. Especially the discoverability of the keyboard shortcuts (I always got the sense the environment tried to push you into using them). And as much as we riff on convergent interfaces in this echo chamber, Unity was the second least offensive for PC users ( with the inverse podium led by KDE :) )
Modern gnome at least has text search when pressing the Meta (Windows) key; vanilla-ish (as seen in SystemRescueCD and Armbian) XFCE doesn't even show its menu when pressed. Not a big deal for me personally as I use Alt-F2 for the run command[1] and then mostly go straight for a terminal and/or Firefox, but still.
[1]: Which is embarrassingly better than Gnome 3's not-even-a-browse-button version (haven't checked on Gnome 4x yet).
I suppose it depends on your use of your system. I tend to be data-centric so I want a desktop that allows files and folders to be placed on it. Someone who's app-centric would welcome a UI that turns the desktop into a big start menu. We have a choice and everyone can get the sort of UI they want.
For my workflow I like XFCE, but I configure it the old way, more like CDE (but better than that lol). I make use of focus follows mouse and "wrap" (move to) desktops at screen edges.
For gaming, I start IceWM, because I like its fine grained focus controls and simplicity (and it doesn't get in the way)
What I really used to like was AfterStep, before they completely ruined it with version 2.0. It was a disconnect, I couldn't work with it. For example it was too rigid and I couldn't snap windows where I wanted them. With AfterStep 1.x (1.8.10 was the last good version I think) I had my virtual desktops configured in a 4x4 square so I could slide around 16 virtual desktops up, down, left, right and diagonally and I'd place applications in whatever layout suited what I was doing. Sadly, that won't compile anymore (and it's beyond my abilities to fix).
I can handle a "windows 95" style UI with start menu, taskbar and desktop though (as long as it has virtual desktops) so that includes a lot of them. That always works for me. IceWM is pretty much that.
I don't actually use a desktop though. I got out of that decades ago. For me a desktop is for wallpaper and application windows (or in the case of an iconifying window manager, minimized window icons). I'm big on panel configuration with icons and flyout launcher menus (e.g. XFCE, KDE) or barring that (e.g. IceWM) an application menu whether "start button" type or right click menu. I don't use desktop shortcut type launchers.
You're not selling it... but then, as someone said upthread, Unity was what caused me to leave Ubuntu and I see no need to return.
But still, horses for courses; we all work differently and so it is to be applauded. It's just not for me.
as with many of the desktop remixes, for now upgrading from that older version isn't recommended
If you are going to have to reinstall, make it to a distro that supports upgrading, because they b*ll*xed up things replacing packages with snaps.
And I'm not even mentioning hamburgers.
The UBPorts folks should get together with these folks and finally reach the dream of the converged desktop with Unity 8.
That way any upstream changes are vetted to ensure the success of both projects.
Right now these two projects overlap quite a bit and really could benefit from collaboration.
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