Ubuntu graphic stack roadmap update

[Oliver Ries]

Hi Jeremy,

On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 9:25 AM, Jeremy Bicha <jbicha at ubuntu.com> wrote:

> On 27 June 2013 10:41, Oliver Ries <oliver.ries at canonical.com> wrote:
> > Using Mir as a X compatible system compositor in 14.04 which can host any
> > Desktop Environment that is running on X today, will allow all dependent
> > Ubuntu derivatives to run on top of this stack in 13.10 and 14.04 without
> > any changes needed on their side [1]. 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.
>
> Thanks for the update. I have quite a few questions...
>
> I was under the understanding that Ubuntu 13.10 would still use
> regular X by default (like 13.04) and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS would be using
> Unity 8 but it sounds like that's not today's plan.
>

not with what was communicated with todays roadmap update. Unity 7 will be
the default desktop until 14.04, we will then assess whether Unity 8 is
ready to become the default.


> Like Kubuntu we expect to switch to Wayland in the next year or so.
> It's nice to see that the various desktop environment can run on XMir
> but I'm still not clear on whether there are any benefits to doing so.
>

One obvious benefit that comes to mind is getting the stack for free and
not having to worry about maintenance. I do acknowledge that there are
other costs associated to that (adopting to Mir), but in our opinion, that
should be less than maintaining a GFX stack on your own. Canonical will
support the Mir stack going forward and we are offering help for upstreams
willing to adopt.


> How do you expect things to work for users who need proprietary
> graphics drivers in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS? Do the existing NVIDIA and ATI
> drivers work with XMir yet?
>

We are committed to not regress anybody in 14.04, the availability of
binary drivers is one major component to that


> Mir currently requires LightDM, right? Does XMir also require LightDM?
> For Ubuntu GNOME's purposes, LightDM so far doesn't provide quite the
> integrated experience GDM does (specifically lockscreen and GNOME
> theming; and next year, Wayland support).


today, XMir is invoked by LightDM similar to other X session compositors, I
don't see a problem doing the same out of GDM. But I leave it to my team to
keep me honest here ;)


> > Ubuntu will be the first Linux distribution to start replacing X as part
> of
> > their default configuration. We appreciate your support and patience in
> that
> > endeavor.
>
> I think Rebecca Black OS has you beat there. Unless you don't think
> Rebecca Black is mainstream enough...
>

I did some research and apparently missed that, no offense intended


> There's a chance that Fedora 20 would be released with Wayland by
> default before 14.04 LTS


imho there is a difference between a chance of doing it and putting out a
roadmap and committing to do it, but I might be nitpicking ;)

cheers,
Olli
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