Lubuntu Planning Switch To Wayland, Porting Openbox To Mir

Ubuntu derivative Lubuntu that is now using the LXQt desktop environment has laid out more of their plans to switch over to Wayland rather than the existing X.Org based session.

In order to achieve their Wayland support with the LXQt desktop, they intend to port the Openbox window manager to using the Mir display server and also leveraging QtLayerShell. Mir, of course, has been focused on Wayland compatibility the past year and is becoming quite solid as of late with its core Wayland protocol support.

As far as why Lubuntu wants to go with Wayland, "The X implementation is old and won’t be updated to address the way desktop Linux is used today. Window managers are an afterthought, and many things aren’t implemented correctly. Wayland is a modern take on the Linux display system."

But getting Openbox running with Mir/Wayland among their other porting isn't going to happen overnight. They are planning to have this done by Lubuntu 20.10 or to be done in a little more than two years.

Their plans were laid out in the newsletter today on their project site. Closer on the horizon is their work for Lubuntu 18.10 that includes various Calamares installer improvements, working on a welcome center, and other enhancements.