No more updates?

[newb85]

For that matter, you could install Mate or Cinnamon on Ubuntu. If you use 12.04, you shouldn't need to upgrade until 2017.

[I2k4]

This hits one of my pet peeves: the release/support cycle. As far as I'm concerned the only releases worth installing are LTS versions, unless the user is a developer or an operating system junkie. Operating systems are not intrinsically interesting to other, ordinary users. They just aren't all that fascinating.

As far as I'm concerned, all of Ubuntu 11.x was BETA and should have been labelled as such. I think the support cycle should be much more prominently explained up front to new users, who might mistakenly install a version that is going to run out of support much sooner than any normal Windows or Apple user would expect. Nobody cares about Ubuntu's silly mechanical six month releases except developers and junkies, and naive first-timers should have the system clearly explained to them so they can avoid interim projects and install something ready for prime time.

[newb85]

There are several things that should be explained more clearly up front. However, Canonical is trying to broaden its base to more casual users. Out of a somewhat valid concern that lengthy, in-depth, or technical explanations will outlast the attention span of or scare off some such casual users, they basically limit their website to self-advertisement and installation instructions.

[offgridguy]

There is a Sabayon version that has mate desktop as well.