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Canonical Announces Mir: A New Display Server Not On X11 Or Wayland
An anonymous reader writes "On the Ubuntu Wiki is now the Mir specification, which is a next-generation display server not based on X11/X.Org or Wayland. Canonical is rolling their own display server for future releases of Ubuntu for form factors from mobile phones to the desktop. Mir is still in development but is said to support Android graphics drivers, open-source Linux graphics drivers, and they're pressuring hardware vendors with commercial closed-source drivers to support it too. They also said X11 apps will be compatible along with GTK3 and Qt/QML programs. Canonical isn't using X11 or Wayland with their future Unity desktop as they see many shortcomings from these existing and commonly used components."
Ubuntu, We Want To Be Different.
Sure, breaking tradition will cause a little more fragmentation in the Linux world, but is that so bad? We don't think our needs, or that of our users, are always met by sticking to the 'same old song and dance' so we're bucking the trend.
There is good and bad in change.
A lot of times in software someone starts some grand plan project which takes forever to get anywhere. Then some lone programmer comes along with something small, well focused and just plain well thought out, which causes the grand project to be abandoned. There are so many examples of this one can't count. The Linux kernel itself compared to Hurd is just one example. Let Canonical have a shot at this. They've got some good ideas, if they can pull it off, the result will stand on its own merits.
Don't be a hypocritical drama queen.
Waa waa dictatorship, waa waa taking away freedom, waa waa forcing users
For someone who loves choice so much you're pretty hard set on X fanaticism. In any other arena X would be described as a monopoly. Should Canonical not be allowed the freedom to compete? Or should your zealotry force their roadmap?
We have competing window managers, competing graphical toolkits, competing desktop environments, X even has competing methods of rendering, a competing display server will make things interesting and looks like it's paving the way for easier cross platform application development.
Chances are Mir will be an open source, open spec standard under a nicey nice GPLish license allowing freedom of choice to distributions, application developers and end users alike.
Linux has been a fractured splintered platform for well over a decade, this doesn't really make that much of a difference.
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
>> "I also find the name to be odd. Do they name it after a soviet space station as an indication that they are planning to take away our rights in a soviet style dictatorship?"
I'm not sure if you're trolling or just ignorant, so let me share some knowledge in case anyone takes this silliness half seriously.
The Russian word "mir" is typically used to mean "world" or "peace", depending on its usage. The term "mir" can also be used in a similar sense to the English words "village", "community" or "global". The word "mir" is actually a perfect fit with the rest of Canonical's naming structure. Ubuntu refers to community, the Unity desktop is named with an idea of many coming together to form a whole, and Mir continues this trend as the term refers to a unified group or community.
Problem is quite simple - Wayland started very small and simple, but of course were held back by legacy support requests (and then there's those closed binary video drivers) and Ubuntu planned to do next LTS with it. However, Canonical suddenly changed their direction 2 years ago, and tried to push into mobile market. Wayland (and Xorg too) can be used for mobile platform, it just needs more work. Problem is Canonical's time is running out. They can't wait. They also don't want to be in same position as others. They want to be first. They don't want to waste all their money only be beaten by some guy who will put GNOME 3 with GNOME Shell together, make it sexy and make all phone/tablet wannabies run for their money. So they retreat more and more in NIH land.
I don't mean them ill. But it's serious fragmentation and trying to destroying de facto Linux desktop ecosystem - to become ultimate winner instead. I'm not sure I can support that in any way anymore.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
I think we're seeing a natural cycle in the software world. During the 80s there were dozens of architectures, operating systems, languages, etc. and the best (for some definition of best) became dominate and during the 90s consolidated. Now we're in the midst of another explosion in new technology (languages, display servers, processor architectures, perhaps even operating systems) that will eventually lead to reconciliation and consolidation in another five to ten years.
Things like Wayland have to appear, and even fail: their existence allows new ideas to be tested giving us a better idea of where to go from here.
HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
My points are valid. I remember when Ubuntu took up each of these issues and adopted or created software to solve these issues.
Network manager is far from perfect. Try setting a static IP address for you wired adapter with network-manager. Or getting a working bridge going. Or having a wi-fi connection active upon booting a computer but before logging in. When Ubuntu adopted network manager and people filed bug reports and brought up those shortcomings. Ubuntu said it wold get taken care of in the next couple releases. They did not.
They said we would have grub to desktop graphic boots. Did they work on it for a bit. But even now, most desktops do not have a graphic boot from grub. Forget about that as an out of box experience with a Nvidia card. From not working in GRUB you move to not working in Plymouth Again Ubuntu did not create these technologies, but they did adopt them, set as a goal what they wanted to do with them. Then they fell short, got bug reports, promised they would fix it in a release or two. After a release or two, they announce another half baked initiative and move on.
Does pulse audio work? Yes, Does it still have issues? Yes. Can it be a pain to get software designed to work with OSS or ALSA working with it yes it can. I have every right to complain. Ubuntu promised 6 years ago when they adopted it that they would get it all fixed and sorted out. They have not.
You mention Unity and Upstart. Upstart still is not delivering on Ubuntu's promised sub 10 second boot times. Which by the way, were promised with graphic boot screens as well. Still not happening. What about 200,000 million users by 13.10? Again another half baked promise.
Ubuntu has done a lot. The Linux desktop is better off than it was in 2006. Ubuntu has helped improve some of these projects. But so far, every time Ubuntu announces an initiative and makes some big claim about what they will accomplish, they end up doing a half baked job when you look at how well they have met their objectives.
200 million users by October 2013
10 second boot times
Desktop looking better than OS X
100% graphical boots on all Linux systems.
Network manager as robust as OS X or Windows XP network manager
Pulse Audio as robust as OS X or Windows XP sound system.
I am not the one making these promises. Ubuntu is. They are the one telling us we should all hop on board and promote Ubuntu to all of our friends. All of this great stuff they are doing.
What I see are half-baked half-fulfilled promises. Being told we are a community, and the minute the majority of us don't like something like the close button being moved to the left side of the window, or Unity. we are told Mark is in charge and it is not a community decision. I see the word Linux purged from anything Ubuntu is involved with. I am tired of being lied to and treated like the ugly girlfriend that Ubuntu want to have sex with but will not hold her hand in public.
vi +
Also the Arch devs are entirely willing to let pacman break your system if you don't religiously keep up with the announcements on their website. If you let a system go for a few months and then run pacman without reading the last several announcements, your system has an excellent chance of being hosed in a way that requires manual tinkering.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem