Me (display server protocol)

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Me
Basic data

developer Canonical
Publishing year February 14, 2013
Current  version 1.8.0
( April 16, 2020 )
operating system Linux
programming language C ++
category Display server
License GPLv3
https://mir-server.io/

Mir is a display server protocol for Linux operating systems that is being developed by Canonical Ltd and is intended to replace the outdated X Window System in the Ubuntu operating system . Between 2013 and 2017, Mir was developed together with Unity 8 / Lomiri , the planned next generation of the Unity desktop. In the course of this, Mir was used for Canonical's mobile operating system Ubuntu Touch .

history

At the beginning of 2013 Canonical announced that it would no longer support the development of the Wayland project and instead develop its own display server, as Wayland would not meet the needs of the Ubuntu operating system. This step was heavily criticized from various quarters as Wayland was already seen by many as the future standard.

The release and integration in Ubuntu's Unity desktop was originally announced for version 13.10, but then postponed several times. Initially, I was only integrated into the Ubuntu Touch smartphone operating system. On desktop computers, in version 16.10, the option to log in to Unity 8 was delivered by default for the first time. The system should be fully developed by 2018. This should make it possible to operate Ubuntu Touch and Ubuntu with the same codebase in the long term and to get the same programs running on both systems.

In April 2017, Mark Shuttleworth announced the end of the Mir, Ubuntu Touch and thus Unity 8 projects. Ubuntu will switch back from the Unity desktop to the Gnome Shell desktop environment.

construction

Similar to Wayland, Mir is based on EGL and uses parts of the infrastructure that was originally developed for Wayland, such as libhybris. The X11 compatibility layer XMir is also based on Wayland.

Other parts of the infrastructure come from Android . This includes the memory management system and Google's protocol buffers . The Android components make the system particularly suitable for smartphones.

distribution

The only actively developed desktop environment with native support for Mir is Canonical's in-house development Unity 8. So far, apart from Ubuntu, no Linux distribution has announced plans to use Mir by default. According to Canonical developers, Mir should also be usable independently of Unity 8. A possible adaptation was considered for various Ubuntu derivatives, so the Xubuntu community considered using Xfce via XMir in the future , but this idea was later discarded.

On July 23, 2013, Compiz developer Sam Spilsbury announced that they would also create a concept port of the Kodi media center (formerly XBMC) for Mir , as before for Wayland . According to Ubuntu developer Oliver Ries, this port was "the first native Mir client in the wild".

Ubuntu

After the launch of Mir on Ubuntu had been postponed several times since 2013, Mark Shuttleworth announced in his traditional video interview with the community at the Ubuntu Online Summit in May 2016 that he would be shipping Ubuntu 16.10 with an option for Mir and Unity 8, “just like you can install Ubuntu with the MATE, KDE or GNOME desktop ”. This option can be selected at login as an alternative to the Unity 7 desktop installed by default. Many programs do not yet support Unity 8 natively, which is why this feature is primarily intended as a technical demonstration.

Toolkits and development environments

  • Qt5 is the officially supported toolkit for Unity8 and Ubuntu Touch, which is also included in the Ubuntu SDK .
  • SDL fully supports Mir and Wayland from version 2.0.4.
  • GTK + 3.16 includes an experimental Mir backend.

criticism

Canonical's decision to develop its own display server with Mir sparked controversy, as many Linux users would have preferred to work together on Wayland in order to establish a uniform standard. Canonical then argued that Wayland was unsuitable for the future of Ubuntu and had inherited, but not fixed, the serious security problems from the X Window System. This claim was revised a little later, but it caused the fronts to harden further. Critics - including Wayland developer Høgsberg - accused Canonical of wanting to torpedo the Wayland project with false statements.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release 1.8.0 . April 16, 2020 (accessed April 17, 2020).
  2. ↑ The mir Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages ​​Page . In: Open Hub . (accessed on September 7, 2018).
  3. ↑ Mir License
  4. ↑ a b Project Mir: Canonical develops its own display server. In: Golem.de. Retrieved November 27, 2016 .
  5. ↑ a b Ubuntu 16.10 released: Unity 8 only runs with major cuts on the desktop. In: Golem.de. Retrieved November 27, 2016 .
  6. ^ Libhybris in Launchpad. In: launchpad.net. Accessed November 27, 2016 .
  7. ↑ ThomasVo5: [Updated] Mir - An outpost envisioned as a new home. In: tvoss @ work. March 4, 2013, accessed November 27, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Artistic differences: Wayland, Mir, and X. (No longer available online.) In: blog.cooperteam.net. Archived from the original on November 6, 2013 ; accessed on November 27, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blog.cooperteam.net
  9. ^ Canonical: Mir is not only about Unity8. In: Ubuntu Insights. Retrieved November 28, 2016 .
  10. ↑ XMir-Based Xubuntu Images Now Available. In: www.phoronix.com. Accessed November 27, 2016 .
  11. ^ "Hello" from XBMC on Wayland. February 27, 2013, accessed November 27, 2016 .
  12. ↑ XBMC on Me. July 23, 2013, accessed February 20, 2017 .
  13. ↑ + Sam Spilsbury is still the man - and since he isn't working for us anymore we… (No longer available online.) In: plus.google.com. Formerly in the original ; accessed on November 27, 2016 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / plus.google.com  
  14. ↑ Mark Shuttleworth's Q&A on YouTube (May 4, 2016)
  15. ↑ SDL 2.0.4 Was Quietly Released Last Week With Wayland & Mir By Default. In: www.phoronix.com. Accessed November 27, 2016 .
  16. ↑ GTK + 3.16.0 released. In: mail.gnome.org. Accessed November 27, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Linux Community: Canonical triggers Shitstorm - Golem.de. Retrieved November 27, 2016 .
  18. ↑ [Kwami] Wayland vs. Me ›Ikhaya› ubuntuusers.de. In: ikhaya.ubuntuusers.de. Retrieved November 27, 2016 .