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Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Will Default To The X.Org Stack, Not Wayland (phoronix.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Five years after their original goal to ship Ubuntu with Wayland, Ubuntu 17.10 transitioned to using the Wayland display system by default as part of their transition to GNOME Shell as the default desktop. But with the upcoming Ubuntu 18.04 LTS release, Canonical has decided to transition back to the X.Org Server. Their reasoning for moving to an X.Org Server by default is better support for screen sharing, remote desktop, and better recovery from crashes. But for those interested the Wayland session will still be available as a log-in option.
"Which is not really newsworthy."
Well it is actually. Various vested interests have been plying the X Windows is dead, Wayland is the way forward line for a few years now. For Ubuntu - a distro not exactly known for its conservatism and aversion to releasing bleeding edge sofware - to return to X as the default graphics system is a pretty obvious statement that Wayland is a long way from being ready for prime time.
... if we can just get an Ubuntu without systemd based on Devuan instead of Debian!
...we even have Wayland/Mir.
The X Server stack was fast enough back in the days of the FOUR-EIGHTY-SIX.
And almost all the implementations of the new system lack features that we already expect to work on x server without thinking about it.
This is the first time in a long while that a company steps back from what looked like suicidal commitment to a bad idea, and actually went back to what works.
I wish Lenovo did the same with the 7-row keyboardes on the ThinkPad. Also I wish Linux companies (except RedHat, of course) would ditch SystemD.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Well, it's a bit more than that. The statement has been in various circles 'wayland is good enough *today*, you don't need xorg anymore'
This is acceptance that people do have things they can't do in Wayland, and it needs to be opt-in rather than opt-opt to avoid bad user experience.
It's not 'wayland will *never* be better', but it is a statement that it has a ways to go, and some of the limitations are design choices that will require interesting conversations, particularly about security with regards to screen sharing.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I think they should be congratulated on responding to user sentiment. I wish more companies would admit they acted prematurely and roll back changes that didn't work out. I can think of one or two very large Linux features that I could live without, but which are foisted on all of us.
"gparted should not run its UI as root. It should run its UI as a regular user and use PolicyKit or something else similar to gain elevated privileges only when necessary to query or modify devices"
I'm all about being angry, but this makes sense. root only when needed, we don't need root for the UI.
"gparted should not run its UI as root. It should run its UI as a regular user and use PolicyKit or something else similar to gain elevated privileges only when necessary to query or modify devices"
Why? Because Wayland devs decided the UI should not run as root? Because breaking functionality in the name of a misguided sense of security is fashionable?
At some point that 40 year old code based designed around a 386 when the software had to draw even the primitives just isn't going to cut it anymore.
You got the reality exactly backwards. A codebase designed around being efficient enough to run on a 386, and field-tested on every thing imaginable for 40 years.
Anything that today's wonder boys can generate, is destined to be a steaming pile in comparison - just because they never saw a reason to learn what efficiency or portability even is.
Barring a major miracle, X will stay with us for quite some time yet.
> that 40 year old code based designed around a 386
It's less than 30 years, and you can say exactly the same about Linux.
Oh please do shut up. X.org codebase is a steaming pile of single-threaded shit that needs to be patched up from 10 different directions to be even able to deal with modern graphics. It's so full of security holes that it doesn't even make sense to look for them.
X server normally is accessible only locally through Unix domain sockets or through SSH tunnels bound to localhost. And if an attacker gets access to the X connection then they already own you.