Even in terms of "Unity the game engine" it's confusing. Unity has supported building for Linux for a long time, and the majority of Unity games have been released for Linux. This is specifically the editor for creating games, which was not previously available.
I usually use unity3d to help narrow my google searches, however its important to note that almost all official literature refers to the platform as Unity, even more so given the recent emphasis on 2d games built w/ it.
Same here. In fact, I use the standard Unity based Ubuntu on my desktop only. I prefer to use a more traditional desktop environment like XFCE on all of my other machines and laptops. The Unity desktop is tolerable and not too difficult to get used to and switch back and forth from XFCE, unlike windows 8.
The Unity3D game engine announcement is awesome and they've been really changing the face of game dev.
People who are aware of Ubuntu's Unity will also know that it obviously has long existed on Linux, so there is no confusion. Simple heuristics made abundantly clear more than any additional title clarification could.
There are a lot of products in tech, and a huge number of name collisions. Context (such as the fact that the linked domain is unity3d) saves us all from having to add caveats and clarifications to every mention. Just as I can talk about Microsoft Windows without noting that I'm not talking about panes of glass.
Well, the title has context -- the URL of the site hosting the title, Unity3D.com, is right next to the title, both on the main page of Hacker News and on the discussion page.
see: https://unity.ubuntu.com/about/
Though there is a certain appreciable irony in having two totally different things named unity.