Ubuntu 13.10 Will Not Use XMir By Default

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="ubuntu saucy salamander" border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwAEgf76_M-S8NNuKv0bdvOZQVkgL0tNu3xI3LMdDLQzd8ecbGJbrBPSbv6hw4_BX2Ctx3oF8cEA2hMGq2kg1PSAI0dDhtb0R6Xgl3rKOOqb4vS0Ia383HwuEJs1SChyphenhyphenXY2BP_KHVPLog/s320/Saucy_Salamander_Abstract_by_Jos%C3%A9_Vera_alcivar.jpg" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Canonical has decided not to switch to Xmir by default for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Back in June, it was <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/ubuntu-1310-saucy-salamander-switching.html">decided</a> to use Mir + Xmir by default in Ubuntu 13.10 (for open source drivers only) but that will no longer happen "<i>due to some outstanding technical difficulties</i>". A native Mir + Unity 8 will still be used for Ubuntu Touch so that's not affected by this decision.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">According to a <a href="http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/10/01/xmir-update-for-ubuntu-13-10/">post</a> on the Ubuntu-devel mailing list, the issues are in XMir part of the stack which provides the compatibility layer between X server and Mir - more specifically, the XMir multi-monitor support which doesn't work "to the extend we’d like to see it for all of our users".</div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"We always planned to ship Mir + XMir on Ubuntu 13.10 Desktop but after months of furious XMir development we needed to make a judgement call about whether we could assure a quality overall Ubuntu Desktop experience with XMir across all supported configurations. While Mir is in good shape for this and XMir is close, we didn’t feel that the user experience around XMir's multimonitor feature was meeting the parity standard."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">- <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mir/13.10/NoDefaultQ%26A">Mir Not Default Q&A</a></div></blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mir/13.10/NoDefaultQ%26A">Q&A</a> about this on the Ubuntu wiki mentions that the recent <a href="http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/linux-and-open-source/a-bump-in-the-high-road-intel-drops-support-for-xmir-in-xorg-driver/">revert</a> from Intel (the Intel Xorg driver got XMir support but the change was later reverted) has nothing to do with this decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mir and XMir will be available in the repositories so users can use Xmir if they want, but will not be used by default.</div><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/10/01/xmir-update-for-ubuntu-13-10/">Ubuntu Fridge</a>, <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mir/13.10/NoDefaultQ%26A">Ubuntu wiki</a></i></div>

Ubuntu 13.10 Will Not Use XMir By Default

Canonical has decided not to switch to Xmir by default for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander. Back in June, it was decided to use Mir + Xmir by...

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Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Not Switching To XMir By Default

<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Xubuntu logo" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1UELa4GO4NA/URvY8CnAR2I/AAAAAAAANpY/F6fWZ8_gG7I/s320/xubuntu.png" /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>In a Xubuntu team <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/xubuntu-devel/2013-August/009308.html">meeting</a>, it was decided that Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander won't ship with Mir & XMir by default.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The reasons behind the decision is that XMir doesn't bring improvements yet and there are some issues with XMir and Xubuntu for now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first question, "<i>Should we wait for improvements landing to XMir later (but before the FF)?</i>" was rejected with 0 votes for waiting, 4 votes against and 1 abstention. The second question was if Mir should be included by default in Xubuntu 13.10 and with 5 votes against, 0 abstentions and 0 votes for including Mir, it was decided that Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander won't use Mir by default.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">XMir will be evaluated for inclusion in Xubuntu during the next cycle "<i>when it has the features we want and is more mature, hopefully at that point it can be a better option for our users</i>".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the same meeting there was also a discussion about including some Xfce 4.11 components (<i>xfce4-settings</i> which brings <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/how-to-use-multiple-monitors-in-xubuntu.html" title="How To Use Multiple Monitors In Xubuntu / Xfce (Extended Display Instead Of Mirror)">improved multi-monitor support</a> and <i>xfdesktop</i> with improved settings dialog and better workspace support) as well as enabling GTK3 indicators for the panel in Xubuntu 13.10 by default, but no decision regarding this has been made yet.</div>

Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Not Switching To XMir By Default

In a Xubuntu team meeting , it was decided that Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander won't ship with Mir & XMir by default. The reasons be...

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Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Switching To Mir Display Server By Default

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Ubuntu developers have <a href="http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/06/27/mir-plans-in-13-10/">announced</a> today that they plan to deliver <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/ubuntu-to-build-its-own-display-server.html">Mir display server</a> by default in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander with XMir, an implementation of X running or Mir.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Unity 8 (also known as Unity Next) on the other hand, won't be available by default and instead, Saucy Salamander will use Unity 7, the codebase which is already in the Saucy development.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAR7VxVxzk7q4nTPaw3hZ9LKjqpnPcSddiYUh3F9dsN5jTWeR1mCKWdPIeHnu1uo4lYACZk85x8hWAnESe50vcEmpWpDt-QMckZyfE3fTLq7RyEaPxd3Hy0vL09EZG4S1MuVC8u4pIdps/s1366/Unity7OnXMirWithBlender.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAR7VxVxzk7q4nTPaw3hZ9LKjqpnPcSddiYUh3F9dsN5jTWeR1mCKWdPIeHnu1uo4lYACZk85x8hWAnESe50vcEmpWpDt-QMckZyfE3fTLq7RyEaPxd3Hy0vL09EZG4S1MuVC8u4pIdps/s320/Unity7OnXMirWithBlender.png" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The announcement notes that <b>XMir will only be used for open source graphics drivers</b> (Intel, Nouveau and Radeon). <b>Proprietary graphics drivers </b>(Nvidia, ATI)<b> don't support Mir yet and</b> the computers that use such drivers <b>will fallback to the regular X server</b>. In the future, Mir should get support for proprietary drivers so this fallback should be removed for Ubuntu 14.04.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With XMir used by default in Ubuntu 13.10 and thus, used by a large number of users, the developers hope to "<i>better understand their [users] needs, fix and resolve edge-case issues, and overall exercise Mir and XMir much faster on our road to the next LTS</i>".</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Update: Olli Ries, Canonical Engineering Director for Unity and Mir, has <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2013-June/037401.html">posted</a> a roadmap for the Ubuntu graphics stack transition to Mir, on the Ubuntu devel mailing list</b>:</div><ul><li>Ubuntu 13.10: XMir on Mir by default, with a fallback session to X where there is no Mir driver support, supported for 9 months;</li><li>Ubuntu 14.04 LTS: XMir as default with the fallback session removed, full Mir driver support, traditional LTS support for 5 years;</li><li>Ubuntu 14.10 and beyond: Mir stack as default, including rootless X support for legacy X applications, supported for 9 months.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">He also adds that running XMir means Ubuntu will be using Unity 7 (<b>so basically, Unity 7 will not only be used for Ubuntu 13.10 but also for Ubuntu 14.04</b>), while Ubuntu 14.10 and beyond, which will be using the Mir as a system compositor will be running Unity 8 as the session shell. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Further more, the message says that "<i>Canonical is committed to support XMir for 5 years during the 14.04 lifecycle, which will give derivatives enough time to evaluate the graphics stack landscape and to make informed decisions when they are ready.</i>"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Below you can watch a video demoing Unity 7, GNOME 3, KDE, Xfce and LXDE running on XMir:</div><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8h0m-ZjPxe8" width="560"></iframe><br />(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=8h0m-ZjPxe8">direct video link</a>)</center><br />Today's announcement refers strictly to Mir being made default for Ubuntu Desktop - the main Ubuntu flavor.  There are no news about the other Ubuntu flavors, except <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/kubuntu-not-switching-to-mir-display.html">Kubuntu, which won't switch to Mir</a>.<br /><br /><b>Check out the full announcement <a href="http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/06/27/mir-plans-in-13-10/">HERE</a>.</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>image via <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110095242873945299189/posts">Thomas Voß</a></i></div>

Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Switching To Mir Display Server By Default

The Ubuntu developers have announced today that they plan to deliver Mir display server by default in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander with X...

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Kubuntu Not Switching To Mir Display Server

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Kubuntu won't be switching to <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/ubuntu-to-build-its-own-display-server.html">Mir</a> / XMir, has announced Jonathan Riddell, the main Kubuntu developer, in a recent blog <a href="http://blogs.kde.org/2013/06/26/kubuntu-wont-be-switching-mir-or-xmir">post</a>.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">In the same article, Jonathan mentions some recent screenshots posted by <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110095242873945299189/posts">Thomas Voß</a>, Technical Architect at Canonical, which show that KDE, among other desktop environments, can run on XMir (a layer that allows running X11 applications on top of Mir). However, he says that:</div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>"[...] compositing is very fragile, even Ubuntu shipping the latest Mesa can increase the number of beasties the poor KWin developers have to handle with because of unexpected issues it creates. Putting another layer between KWin and your monitor is certain to create new issues so I'll be keeping anything to do with Mir off the Kubuntu images."</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>- <a href="http://blogs.kde.org/2013/06/26/kubuntu-wont-be-switching-mir-or-xmir">Jonathan Riddell</a></i></div></blockquote><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM47_kRJPDfqjnwnUP1OWiFopsdYIKfCnLpdVfOu2N8G-F_Gz6dluZSbbCTSmi_eIYwimaSgoF-dd9-fz6JlPonT2K3YA7mYEqphetc0o3qEWgLUt3WjRiNrT3FLGqdNTGHVFKqIDI5wE/s1366/KDEonXMir.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Kubuntu Mir" border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM47_kRJPDfqjnwnUP1OWiFopsdYIKfCnLpdVfOu2N8G-F_Gz6dluZSbbCTSmi_eIYwimaSgoF-dd9-fz6JlPonT2K3YA7mYEqphetc0o3qEWgLUt3WjRiNrT3FLGqdNTGHVFKqIDI5wE/s320/KDEonXMir.png" title="Kubuntu Mir" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kubuntu on XMir - image via +<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110095242873945299189/posts/MHUg78azKSN">Thomas Voß</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The distro will continue to use X by default for the 13.10 release which is currently under development, and for the 14.04 LTS release which will arrive next year. After<b> </b>14.04 LTS, Kubuntu will probably switch to Wayland, "<i>which is what KDE and every other Linux distro hopes to do</i>", says Jonathan.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">There are still things to figure out though, like what happens if an Ubuntu Desktop user installs Kubuntu Desktop or the other way around - the Kubuntu developers will need to find a way to deal with this until Ubuntu makes the switch to Mir which, according to the initial <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/ubuntu-to-build-its-own-display-server.html">Mir announcement</a>, should happen with Ubuntu 14.04 (April 2014).<br /><br /><b>Update</b>: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/ubuntu-1310-saucy-salamander-switching.html">Ubuntu 13.10 will switch to Mir by default</a>.</div>

Kubuntu Not Switching To Mir Display Server

Kubuntu won't be switching to Mir / XMir, has announced Jonathan Riddell, the main Kubuntu developer, in a recent blog post . In the sa...

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Ubuntu To Use Its Own Display Server Called Mir, Unity To Be Ported To Qt/QML

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I7QNX7X75ks/UTTmVqTTJGI/AAAAAAAAOXs/Xl1flZAqhEw/s1600/ubuntu-qt.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I7QNX7X75ks/UTTmVqTTJGI/AAAAAAAAOXs/Xl1flZAqhEw/s320/ubuntu-qt.png" title="ubuntu qt" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">According to a recent <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2013-March/036776.html">announcement</a>, <b>Ubuntu will use its own Display Server called Mir</b>, replacing X Window server. The reason Ubuntu will use its own display server is that "<i>none of the existing solutions would allow us to implement our vision without taking major compromises which would come at the cost of user experience and quality</i>" and obviously, to achieve full "<a href="https://www.google.com/?q=ubuntu+convergence#hl=en&safe=off&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=ubuntu+convergence&oq=ubuntu+convergence&gs_l=hp.12...0.0.0.2330.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0.les%3B..0.0...1c..5.psy-ab.jblqjOSfMjs&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43148975,d.ZWU&fp=7e9a22260310a8e3&biw=1252&bih=927">convergence</a>", a hot topic recently that has caused quite a bit of <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/107555540696571114069/posts/HSL2C21DJt7">controversy</a>.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><h2>Mir, a display server that works across desktop and mobile devices</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Mir (as in the space station) will provide a graphics stack that works across different platforms and it will firstly replace SurfaceFlinger for the Phablet images and will eventually make it on the desktop.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>There will be two Mir libraries</b>: a server which will contain the server side components and will be used to implement a compositor and a client which will allow applications to communicate with Mir servers (used by toolkits). There are also going to be <a href="https://launchpad.net/qmir">Qt bindings</a> for Mir, an Unity System Compositor, a new Unity greeter implementation using Mir and Unity.<br /><br />Also, Mir will support multiple GPUs running in the same system. The MirSPec page mentions that it should support seamless transition between GPUs so maybe with this we'll finally get proper Optimus support on Linux.</div><br />Initially, Mir will only run if your system uses the free / open source drivers, but Canonical is in talks with GPU vendors to get Mir support for those drivers / GPUs:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">With our X-integration in place, you can run Mir on your desktop machine if your system runs a GPU that supports the free driver stack. For the closed-source desktop drivers: We are in active conversations with GPU vendors to enable Mir on those drivers/GPUs, too. More to this, we are working towards a more unified driver model sitting on top of EGL. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>- <a href="http://samohtv.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/mir-an-outpost-envisioned-as-a-new-home/">Thomas Voß</a>, Canonical Technical Architect</i></div></blockquote><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you're wondering what will happen to existing applications that require X, Mir has that covered and it will come with <b>support for legacy X applications</b>. Furthermore, there's no need of porting XUL and GTK3 (and obviously, Qt/QML) applications because the Ubuntu developers will work on providing Mir integration for these toolkits.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Unity to be ported to Qt/QML</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The second big announcement of the day is that <b>Unity will be ported to Qt/QML</b> "<i>to make development more efficient across our wider convergent strategy</i>".</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnityNextSpec">Unity Next Spec</a>, <b>Unity Next will be integrated on top of Mir, the UI will use Qt</b> and will use much of the code that's already available in the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/02/ubuntu-touch-developer-preview-and.html">Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview</a>. The ultimate goal is to provide a seamlessly scale across multiple form factors and carry Unity's visual design and identity. This means Unity on the phone, tablet, TV and desktop will share the <b>same code base</b>, so the "convergence" Mark Shuttleworth has talked about a while back is starting to take shape.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">With the recent <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/search/label/Ubuntu%20Touch?max-results=10">Ubuntu Touch</a> announcements, this makes sense, but there is something that I don't understand: why was Unity 2D, which is written in Qt/QML, <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/unity-2d-no-longer-installed-by-default.html">dropped from Ubuntu</a> and they've used the Compiz-based Unity on the desktop instead? And what's going to happen with the Compiz-based Unity? I just hope this isn't another rushed decision, like the recent <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2013-February/036502.html">changes to UDS</a> which is now an online only event and the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/02/official-ubuntu-rolling-release-proposal.html">rolling release proposal</a> that even Ubuntu members were surprised to hear about.<br /><br />I'm also starting to doubt that <b>Lubuntu, Kubuntu or Xubuntu</b> will continue to exist after so many changes: rolling release, new display server, focus on Ubuntu Touch, etc. At least, in their current form: based on Ubuntu. Using Debian on the other hand should be a lot easier so maybe they'll switch to it? I guess we should find that out soon, after the Lubuntu, Xubuntu and Kubuntu teams analyze their options.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>The plan</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The target</b> is to have a first level/functional integration of Mir and Unity Next by May 2013, by October 2013 to have a Mir - UnityNext code base that could be taken to produce a phone and <b>reach full convergence by April 2014</b> (Ubuntu 14.04 LTS).</div><br /><br /><b>More about Mir</b>: <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MirSpec">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MirSpec</a> | <a href="https://launchpad.net/mir">Mir source code</a><br /><br /><b>More about Unity Next</b>: <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnityNextSpec">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnityNextSpec</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Mir and Unity Next will be discussed at the <a href="http://uds.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu Developer Summit</a> (which from now on will only take place online) which starts tomorrow.</div>

Ubuntu To Use Its Own Display Server Called Mir, Unity To Be Ported To Qt/QML

According to a recent announcement , Ubuntu will use its own Display Server called Mir , replacing X Window server. The reason Ubuntu will u...

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