Today is Ubuntu 18.10 release day, featuring Yaru as the default ubuntu theme! The isos are still being validated as I write, but I want to go ahead and thank everyone involved in this huge community effort.
Eleven months ago, this topic started, which was a consequence of some comments on the “GNOME Shell transition” and related blog posts: it was maybe time to change and refresh our theme. A lot has happened since then, and you can read the 1828 posts on this thread startedj, without counting other dedicated work topics! We now have a very beautiful theme as a default, fresh new look for ubuntu 18.10! The theme even goes beyond the initial scope, thanks to the motivation of participants: it’s spreading from GNOME Shell, GTK, icons and even a new whole set of sound effects!
I think we should take some time to thank everyone involved: all volunteers who said “I’m in” when the call for participation was made or who came along the way, all benevolents who contributed to the various parts of the theme and everyone who contributed via feedbacks here or in the bug report. I wouldn’t have enough thanks to say to all of you who spent countless hours on this. You know who you are. 
A full community-based approach for definining, and then realizing, the new ubuntu desktop default look sounded crazy, but we did it, and let’s celebrate that!
Of course, this is far from being the end of the journey. We’ll likely have adjustements to be made, leading release after release slowly to the next LTS when even more users will have the benefits of this default, new, elegant theme!