Mir Devs Are Still Working On An Example Mir Desktop Session For Ubuntu 18.04

While Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" is just one month away from release, the developers working on the Mir display server code are still working to get an example desktop session into this release.

Details remain light but in writing yesterday about changes the UBports' team needs to make for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS support, longtime Mir developer Alan Griffiths commented, "The Mir team is aiming to have the necessary tweaks in place for the 18.04 release along with an example "Mir" desktop session." The tweaks needed for Mir in Ubuntu 18.04 are not using Mir-on-Mir and client applications using libmirclient cannot be using EGL otherwise only software-based rendering will work.

But besides getting UBports' Unity 8 desktop session working on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS out-of-tree, it will be interesting to see what the Mir team manages as their example desktop session for this next Ubuntu release.

It could just be a basic MirAL / Mir Kiosk example or other very basic example akin to Wayland's Weston compositor. There's also been some speculation in the community that Canonical is working on getting the GNOME desktop stack working with their Mir Wayland compositor for some more magnificent goals down the road.

It will be interesting to see what they can scrape together as the Mir example desktop session for Ubuntu 18.04 and how they push and position Mir by the time of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.