Canonical developing an own display server

Ubuntu won't be using Wayland as a replacement of X but is rather developing an own display server called Mir.

Sources:
http://www.olli-ries.com/
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MirSpec

There is already a heated debate about this decision, e.g. here and in several articles on Phoronix.

I'm not happy about this decision

 

Geeks are never happy with the changes, I guess.

But I think they really have to change a lot as ubuntu touch is a radical change in Ubuntu OS. We must expect a lot of changes coming.

 

Canonical got tired of waiting for Wayland and decided to move ahead with creating its own display manager to replace the increasingly aged Unix Windows X display server. Like with Unity, it will provoke a lot of controversy but hopefully it will push Linux into a new era. This is definitely a positive development.

 

I have some doubts:
1. Some claims about Wayland seem to be incorrect or, at least, questionable.

2. Canonical obviously lacks experienced programmers in this area. Quote:

2. Linux is becoming an interesting platform for games as has become obvious in the past months. An additional display server means fragmentation, and this might constrain this positive trend as it will probably complicate, e.g., driver development.

 

Terrible idea.

 

lot of changes going to come

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_(display_server_protocol)

 

What I dislike is too many words.
Gallium, Mir, Wayland, etc, just makes things confusing and geeky.
Why not just call it Y, as a continuation of X.
Mrk

 

Because "Yorg" doesn't sound good at all.

Anyway I don't see Mir as a problem in and of itself; if it's compatible with the same hardware and the same applications, I'm happy. OTOH I'd rather not see yet more duplication of effort.

On that note, though, I am glad to see they're switching to Qt for Unity. I always thought Unity 2D was the way they should have gone in the first place... Just hope they stick with it, instead of going off in some other direction in another six months.

(Is that too much to hope for?)

 

I like the fact that Canonical is pursuing its own vision for Ubuntu. Unix has been a soggy, fragmented mess for decades with layer upon layer and it neither looks nor feels like a unified OS. BEOS aimed for the latter approach, introducing simplicity, reliability and beauty in computing. I'd like to see Canonical do that for Unix and I wish them the best.