Arcan Display Framework Receives Funding As Innovative Wayland Alternative

While much of the focus by Linux desktops as we roll into 2024 is polishing off their Wayland support, there does exist a rather innovative display server out there that's been in the works for years: Arcan. Arcan is the open-source project built atop a game engine and provides a display server paired with a real-time multimedia framework for audio and video. Arcan can be used from embedded purposes through full desktop solutions and can also interact with Wayland and X11 as well as embracing VR. Arcan 0.6.3 was released today along with the announcement that they've taken on some funding.

In today's Arcan 0.6.3 release announcement it's noted the news of receiving external funding to advance this innovative open-source project:

"In ‘good news everybody’, the project has received promises of generous funding from both a private entity and from EU-NGI/NLNet."

Arcan will use the private funding to improve client compatibility, initially with a focus on the KVM / QEMU UI / audio driver integration and then working on to enhancing integration with X.Org, Qt, Imgui, SDL/GLFW, and the Chrome Ozone layer. NLNet funding will focus on improving and documenting Arcan's network transparency support and its A12 protocol.

Those interested in learning more about this funding and the work that went into the Arcan 0.6.3 release can do so via today's release announcement. The Arcan 0.6.3 release video is embedded above.