I actually had to use Unity for a little while some weeks ago, after replacing my 32-bit Xubuntu install for 64-bit Ubuntu, (Xubuntu's ISO doesn't come with WUBI, so I needed plain ol' Ubuntu until I installed XFCE again from the official PPA.) and I gotta say, I had it all figured out in 5 minutes tops. A bit quirky, but not impossible to learn.

I navigated it quite fluently, despite how much I hated it with every fiber of my being when Unity first made its rounds. I'd go so far as to say it's viable and eye-catching for the desktop whether you're using a mouse, tablet, or touchscreen. If you're looking for something different from what even Microsoft is offering in Windows 8, Unity's got it.

That's not to say I'm sticking with it, though. While it's way more intuitive, functional, and easier on the eyes than Gnome 3, I just don't feel it's customizable enough for my needs. Customization is one of the reasons why I love Linux so much, because I can tweak the desktop to be as lightning fast for computing as I can get with a mouse straight out of the box. I get that and so much more from XFCE.

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So long story short, I don't feel much hate for Unity anymore, just a preference to something else for a more efficient and flexible computing experience. Might give it another serious trial once more options are available on the user's end. Gnome 3, however, I may gladly bash until Kingdom come, but that's a whole other can of worms for another topic. So how do you guys feel about Unity now?