What's the latest, stable version of Ubuntu that doesn't use Unity?

Question

I'm looking for the latest, stable version of Ubuntu that uses Gnome 2. As much as I understand, newest, stable version - 11.04 - is using Unity... and that's new desktop environment.

Is Unity a Desktop Environment? helped a lot.

Answer 1

Ubuntu 11.04 is the latest version that uses Gnome 2 (Although this isn't exactly what you want, as you actually are talking about gnome-panel, which 11.04 uses Unity), but this version is no longer supported.

Ubuntu 10.10 is the latest version that uses gnome-panel by default, but this version is no longer supported.

Ubuntu 10.04.2 is the latest LTS release that uses gnome-panel, which is supported until April 2013 (for the Desktop) and April 2015 (for the server)

Answer 2

Ubuntu 11.04 does use Unity by default, but you can change back to Gnome 2/gnome-panel by choosing the Ubuntu Classic Session option in the login screen.

Answer 3

You can have the classic look by doing this:

• How do I switch to the Classic GNOME Desktop?

Answer 4

Ubuntu 10.10 use gnome 2 standard in ubuntu 11.04 you can still switch to claccis.

Answer 5

you can have 12.04 with Gnome2, here my:

here a little guide: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/03/gnome-classic-in-ubuntu-12-04-its-like-nothing-ever-changed

Answer 6

Ubuntu has come a long way, and though I was not a believer in Unity, I have found that every update has brought stability, speed and excellent new features.

I would recommend 12.04LTS, however I use 12.10, and though some have had issues, I have not. I have found it performs better with my hardware.

Remember Ubuntu will work differently on different hardware, simply because of possible driver issues.

Ultimately for long term support and stability it has to be 12.04LTS

I would suggest just using a different front end, like Gnome3, LXDE, KDE, Gnome Fallback, etc. This way you keep the longterm support but do not have to use unity.

Thanks