Canonical Announces Mir Display Server
New X replacement will support the Unity desktop in future Ubuntu releases.
Canonical has announced development of a new open source display server called Mir. This server is intended as "a replacement for the X Window server system to unlock next-generation user experiences for devices ranging from Linux desktop to mobile devices powered by Ubuntu."
According to the Mir spec page, the purpose of Mir is to enable the development of the next generation Unity and, contrary to some previous speculation, it will not be based upon the Wayland display server and protocol, which has received attention recently as a possible X replacement.
The Mir specification page gives three principal reasons why Canonical wants to replace the venerable X Window, which has served the Linux and Unix communities for 30 years:
- X Window shares too much system state across process boundaries.
- The complexity of X Window leaves room for applications to spoof input events they don't own.
- The compositor hierarchy ends on the session level. (The graphical shell starts after boot, with no ingrataion of the shell from boot time).
Canonical's grand vision of a single platform for mobile and desktop systems has already led to the development of the homegrown Unity desktop; Mir now takes that integration down deeper into the system.
The roadmap states that, by May 2013, the project intends to integrate "Unity Next with Mir and provide enough facility to start iterating the actual shell development, providing developers with a solid platform and designers with means for rapid prototyping." By October 2013, Unity Next and Mir window management should be completely integrated to support an Ubuntu Phone product. According to the spec, the developers want to fully replace X in user sessions and provide a legacy mode to support X clients. By April 2014, they plan to achieve "complete convergence across the form factors."
The Mir project will produce the libmir-server and libmir-client libraries.
Issue 261/2022
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
KaOS 2022.06 Now Available With KDE Plasma 5.25
The newest iteration of KaOS Linux not only adds the latest KDE Plasma desktop but sets LibreOffice as the default.
-
Manjaro 21.3.0 Is Now Available
Manjaro “Ruah” has been released and includes the latest Calamares installer, GNOME 42, and much more.
-
SpiralLinux is a New Linux Distribution Focused on Simplicity
A new Linux distribution, from the creator of GeckoLinux, is a Debian-based operating system with a focus on simplicity and ease of use.
-
HP Dev One Linux Laptop is Now Available for Pre-Order
The System76/HP collaboration Dev One laptop, geared toward developers, is now available for pre-order.
-
NixOS 22.5 Is Now Available
The latest release of NixOS with a much-improved package manager and a user-friendly graphical installer.
-
System76 Teams up with HP to Create the Dev One Laptop
HP and System76 have come together to develop a new laptop, powered by Pop!_OS and aimed toward developers.
-
Titan Linux is a New KDE Linux Based on Debian Stable
Titan Linux is a new Debian-based Linux distribution that features the KDE Plasma desktop with a focus on usability and performance.
-
Danielle Foré Has an Update for elementary OS 7
Now that Ubuntu 22.04 has been released, the team behind elementary OS is preparing for the upcoming 7.0 release.
-
Linux New Media Launches Open Source JobHub
New job website focuses on connecting technical and non-technical professionals with organizations in open source.
-
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 Now Available
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 has been released with all the additions from upstream as well as other features and improvements.