# Ubuntu replaces Gnome with Unity



## overmind (Nov 5, 2010)

But the greatest news is that: "The next major transition for Unity will be to deliver it on Wayland, the OpenGL-based display management system." according to Mark Shuttleworth.

On March this year I've posted a question on Off-topic section regarding an OpenGL window manager, (then I was accused of being a troll by someone, which did not happend before).
Here is the thread: http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=12129

Well, it seems there's an answer to my question and it is called Wayland, and Ubuntu is moving to it. Well I don't know if this exist in FreeBSD yet, but if is not here I hope will be soon.

To be more clear please look at:
http://www.cio.com.au/article/367050/ubuntu_risky_leap_unity_wayland/
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/551

Basically people at Ubuntu are replacing Gnome with their own developed Unity window manager. And the next step will be to replace Xorg with Wayland.

Why this is great news for us?
Well, more graphic servers in Open Source world will not hurt but maybe will bring faster/better graphic quality to desktops.

Maybe a publication see this as a risky leap (I mean ubuntu using Wayland) but such step will help Wayland.

Let's hope it will be present on FreeBSD too.


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## Oxyd (Nov 5, 2010)

Myself, I'm looking forward to seeing it happen. X11 is a mess, burdened with years of backward compatibility and originally designed for something completely different from today's PCs. OpenGL acceleration sounds like a nice thing, although it's probably going to be problematic for ATI users -- especially those using a card's driver doesn't support 3D acceleration. (Talking about FreeBSD drivers here.)

Anyway, I'm glad to see that there's finally a serious attempt to replace X. With a bit of luck, it won't be too Linux-specific and we'll be able to run it on FreeBSD-based desktops.


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## UNIXgod (Nov 5, 2010)

Forks are alway a good thing. Or is this a rewrite? It will be nice to have a choice. One of the problems over the years from xfree86 to x.org has always been to just 'deal with it'.

As long as it works with regard to what is already functional elements (i.e. ssh -X) and removes the need for silly things like hald and dbus( sorry we all don't use gnome)

I look forward to the day I can setup fluxbox on a laptop and not have to be forced to run services in the background just to control my touchpad or keyboard input. hmmm.... It's almost as if we were there once.


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## oliverh (Nov 6, 2010)

> Forks are alway a good thing.



Definitely not. You're risking a Balkanisation of some application, especially if someone as inexperienced as the Ubuntu-crowd starts such a project.



> With a bit of luck, it won't be too Linux-specific and we'll be able to run it on FreeBSD-based desktops.



Yeah of course, nowadays almost any software out there is more or less Linux-specific.


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## alelab (Nov 16, 2010)

Hi,



			
				UNIXgod said:
			
		

> Forks are alway a good thing. Or is this a rewrite? It will be nice to have a choice. One of the problems over the years from xfree86 to x.org has always been to just 'deal with it'.


WAYLAND is not a fork of X. See the FAQ : http://bit.ly/b4sHLz
And here the website of WAYLAND : http://bit.ly/duqegJ


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## SirDice (Nov 16, 2010)

Wayland will take at least a few years before it'll even run on Linux. So don't hold your breath waiting for it. It also looks like it'll be quite Linux centric as it relies heavily on evdev. For now Nvidia already said they're not going to support it anytime soon.

In all, it'll take a few years before they'll attempt to replace Xorg.


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## gnumac (Nov 17, 2010)

*Wayland for FreeBSD*

Hi, men, there is a new project named 'Wayland', could we install wayland on FreeBSD? It must be so cool and so fast for FreeBSD desktop client.


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## SirDice (Nov 17, 2010)

gnumac said:
			
		

> Hi, men, there is a new project named 'Wayland',


We know. See Thread 19081 [ merged - Mod. ]



> could we install wayland on freebsd ?


Not without some mayor changes in the wayland source.


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## Nukama (Nov 17, 2010)

If someone ports GEM/TTM and KMS to FreeBSD. See http://wiki.freebsd.org/Ports/X11/Roadmap and FreeBSD Will Pay For Some KMS & GEM Love


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## SirDice (Nov 17, 2010)

Nukama said:
			
		

> If someone ports GEM/TTM and KMS to FreeBSD.


Wayland also leans heavily on evdev. Either evdev needs to be ported to FreeBSD (not likely) or Wayland needs to be modified to use FreeBSD's features.


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## DutchDaemon (Nov 17, 2010)

[ threads merged ]


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## irkkaaja (Apr 16, 2011)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Not without some mayor changes in the wayland source.



Just, incidentally, wouldn't it make more sense to write a separate implementation of the Wayland display protocol for FreeBSD? I mean, that was part of the goal -- the X display protocol ("X Window System" actually refers to this protocol) is a pain to implement, an idea which has been corroborated by every single person I've ever met who has played with the low-level X stuff.

The Wayland code is certainly Linux-specific, but the Wayland protocol is decidedly platform-agnostic, perhaps even more than X itself!


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## release (Feb 2, 2012)

Oxyd said:
			
		

> Anyway, I'm glad to see that there's finally a serious attempt to replace X. With a bit of luck, it won't be too Linux-specific and we'll be able to run it on FreeBSD-based desktops.



Actually, the Wayland code is very specific to Linux, they use extensively the Linux APIs/Interfaces and make use of modern kernel infrastructure that FreeBSD doesn't have.


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## drhowarddrfine (Feb 2, 2012)

Shouldn't this be in "off-topic"?


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