Mir vs. Wayland & effect on Linux "Ecosystem"?

[deadflowr]

I read this last night/this morning (twas late)

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/05/m...-unity8-future

[neu5eeCh]

I think this will be ironed out when Mir makes its appearance. Canonical works with Steam to bring gaming to Linux (supports Ubuntu first) I am sure they are aware of that.

Translation: "No, really, the ship is unsinkable."

[monkeybrain2012]

I read this last night/this morning (twas late)

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/05/m...-unity8-future

"The current plan is to stretch for Unity 8 in 14.04 LTS, but we are confident we can have Unity 7 running there just fine. We already support Unity 7 and it’s getting faster and cleaner as we go,.."

So does this mean that there will still be an option to use x in 14.04? If that is the case I am not too worry, it will be another 6 years before Mir becomes the only option.

[deadflowr]

"The current plan is to stretch for Unity 8 in 14.04 LTS, but we are confident we can have Unity 7 running there just fine. We already support Unity 7 and it’s getting faster and cleaner as we go,.."

So does this mean that there will still be an option to use x in 14.04? If that is the case I am not too worry, it will be another 6 years before Mir becomes the only option.

Being that they're pressing hard just to get something into the repos for testing on 13.10 tells me that they won't make it to a full switch by 14.04.

And if by some chance they did make it and a change happens, you can expect an even larger migration from Ubuntu to other flavors or distros.

I think moving to mir as the default display server, in less than a year, would be more disastrous then when they switched to unity for 11.04.

But adding it for 14.10 and beyond seems like a better, more rational direction.

[monkeybrain2012]

Being that they're pressing hard just to get something into the repos for testing on 13.10 tells me that they won't make it to a full switch by 14.04.

Yeah to make a full switch to Mir in the LTS without full blown testing in a productive environment (13.10 ) first is utterly insane. But I don't think Mark Shuttleworth has completely lost his marbles, so I interpret his answer to OMG to mean "We set the high (perhaps not realistically attainable) goal of getting Unity 8 and Mir into a workable state by 14.04 but it will not be the only option, Unity 7 (hence X) will still be supported in 14.04 and we have made many improvement there as well"

[neu5eeCh]

And if by some chance they did make it and a change happens, you can expect an even larger migration from Ubuntu to other flavors or distros.

Many flavors and distros seem to be moving toward Wayland. This will also render 3rd party video drivers (designed for X), perfectly useless. It may turn out to be a tough situation for many linux users. One of the long-vaunted advantages of Linux has been the ability to use it on older hardware. This may no longer be the case and many users, on older machines, might well be driven back to windows (if they want to take full advantage of their video cards) or increasingly niche-y linux distributions based on Ubuntu (perhaps) but running X.

[lykwydchykyn]

One of the long-vaunted advantages of Linux has been the ability to use it on older hardware.

I think we've already entered an era where "normal" mainstream distros don't do any better on older hardware than Windows, and only specialized "lightweight" distros are aimed at older hardware.

[zemega]

Its certainly true some harware is old now. And I do think its time to upgrade your computer/laptop for cheap now. Look at Asus future model, 2x1GHz cpu, intergrated graphic (probably ati radeon or intel), and 2gb ram (hopefully upgradeable) for less than 300USD. The price of Windows 7 is more than half of the laptop price. And if distros want to move forward, it got to keep up and use the potential of current technology while maintaining support for technology a few years before. A distro won't be popular if it can only use half of the technology or capability of the technology/spec of the user. Its also means Linux user must also let go of really old hardware, and change/upgrade to latest or slightly new/old.
Edit: Although I don't mind if Ubuntu/Canonical release a remix for old hardware, like the netbook remix before. Simple Unity (no fancy blur, depth or transparency), simple browser and other stuffs, and probably uses X. Although If they can make Mir to be lightweight, and better than X, that would be a better choice.

Isnt X can do many things, but a user don't really need that much. Would not that means Mir might just be lighter than X?