GNOME Shell represents a new desktop approach intended to make applications easier to access, limit workspace distractions and make more use of modern desktop and notebook hardware.
Canonical, for its part, has broken ranks with GNOME by opting to not participate in GNOME Shell, instead developing for Ubuntu a separate interface, called “Unity.” Unity is rooted in many of the same components and designed with many of the same goals as GNOME, albeit with different implementation details.
Read my review at eWEEK.com, and check out the screen captures I took of GNOME Shell, Unity, and the two environments’ fallback desktops below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw7gT-Yj2hE]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaSgVQJxIos]
Listen to this article