A Look Back At The Desktop & X.Org/Wayland/Mir Milestones Of Ubuntu

[leipero]

My favorite moment of Unity was sudo apt-get install gnome-session-flashback . On serious side, I've tried so menby times to use Unity, and result was always the same = removing it and moving to another DE (gnome-flashback or gnome 3). This is very subjective, but Unity is one of the few DE's I couldn't find one thing i liked, first color, it's abomination, I don't know how can anyone on their right mind put those colors on default "first look" UI and expect users to appreciate it, it downright repels users from it. Themes, unity greeter for LDM, and general UI, everything seemd wrong to me.

One thing that was positive to Unity DE (compared to GNOME and other gnome-based env.) was stability, but that was only durring 2015-ish, when GNOME had some serious problems, and Ubuntu GNOME by default was terrible (I think it still is, idk).

[L_A_G]

I've never had a problem with Unity once they got rid of the poo-based color palette and I think it looks rather good. Having used both Windows and OSX prior to switching my main desktop OS to Linux I'm going to say that it's better than either.

Unfortunately I'm not all that big of a fan the alternative DE's either... I've tried using both Gnome and KDE in CentOS, but my experience can only be described as being rather horrid. My attempts at using XFCE haven't been much better as it's a DE made first and foremost to have low resource usage with the actual usability clearly coming far behind on the list of priorities.

Thus I hope that Gnome has made major strides since the last time I tried using it, which admittedly was back in 2014, because otherwise Canonical is going to be taking a big step backwards.

[tildearrow]

Michael, I might be late, but I never noticed about this typo:

2006: The first Ubuntu LTS release, 16.04 turned 16.06 Dapper Drake, continued with the latest GNOME 2 of the time (v2.8).

It should be 6.04 and 6.06, respectively.

[zoomblab]

Mir has no clear advantage over modern Wayland and its implementations

Of course it has. It is developed with proper object oriented language (modern C++) and up until now by responsible people working under a single entity. You can bet that its design is way better, consistent and well thought than Wayland implementations hacked by of people from all over the places.

[rjberg]

Wasn't mir designed to be more universal across systems? One OS for phones and tablets and laptops and desktops? I think it is not so strange that failed. Microsoft tried the same with win8.

Not saying it will never be reality: one system that you can run all your programs on and adapts its user interface as needed. I just don't think it will be as easy as some people who try it think.

[microcode]

Of course it has. It is developed with proper object oriented language (modern C++) and up until now by responsible people working under a single entity. You can bet that its design is way better, consistent and well thought than Wayland implementations hacked by of people from all over the places.

And yet none of this is true. OO has nothing to do with software quality. Mir, despite only having one implementation and a singular goal, has not even caught up to those Wayland implementations "hacked by of people from all over the places"[sic]. There have been commercial devices shipping Wayland since at least 2014, the protocol is mature enough for common desktop usage today on real hardware.

Mir got copy and paste like... a week ago.

[bug77]

Of course it has. It is developed with proper object oriented language (modern C++) and up until now by responsible people working under a single entity. You can bet that its design is way better, consistent and well thought than Wayland implementations hacked by of people from all over the places.

I'm not sure I follow. Wayland is a protocol, you're free to implement it however you want.

[Goingdown]

I really miss original Brown color palettes of older Ubuntus. They were really nice. I never liked the new purple things.

I have been using Ubuntu on and off style from the beginning... Gnome 2, Awesome, Evilvm, Gnome 3 have had my favourite window managers. Currently I am running Fedora 25 on my work laptop, Opensuse tumbleweed on my home laptop and Ubuntu Gnome on my home desktop.

[devius]

Very nice retrospective!

I think the only thing missing from the article is the Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding campaign. That was pretty big news.

I actually like Unity a lot and will miss it, but I also like Gnome, and I'm used to using different DEs all the time, so I can adapt pretty easily.

[Trevelyan]

Wayland != Weston/LibWeston != Kwin/QT != Mutter/GTK != Enlightenment/ELF

Wayland is a protocol definition, and not code in any language. So no C vs. C++ vs. ObjC vs. C#

Weston is a Wayland compositor implemented in C built on LibWeston. LibWeston (C code) could be reused by other Wayland compositors, but is _not_ used by the "big 3".

KWin is a Wayland compositor implemented in C++ built on QT/KDE-Foundations. i.e. Object Orientated

Mutter is a Wayland compositor implemented in (I assume) C built on GTK

E's compositor is also (I assume) implemented in C built on EFL

The are other compositor implementations, even in other OO languages, but I believe most of the smaller outfits eventually use LibWeston or QT's compositor lib.

NOTE: There is no "Wayland Server" (like X11 has) that the compositors connect or speak with. Clients connected directly to the compositor via the wayland protocol and the compositor has to deal with Input and Output hardware all on its own. (Usually via LibInput and GBM/DRI/EGL)