Running Wayland: It Works, But A Lot Of Work Remains

[1c3d0g]

Go Wayland Go!

For those of you belittling other developers' incredible efforts, I would like to see YOUR damn display server. Oh wait...

'Nuff said.

[Ferdinand]

Are those screenshots really the best way to show wayland? That is a really ugly looking DE. I don't know if KDE looks like this by default but this is worse than win3.1.

[ShadowBane]

Are those screenshots really the best way to show wayland? That is a really ugly looking DE. I don't know if KDE looks like this by default but this is worse than win3.1.

The shots are taken with Weston. Nobody seriously expects you to use Weston, it is just there for demonstration purposes. It works, but just enough to say that it works.

KDE and Gnome haven't been ported to wayland yet (KDE is still using Qt 4, wayland support is in Qt 5; no idea what the GTK status is) In addition to that, the API just stabilized, meaning that writing window managers for it has been pretty much impossible until now. In the not too distant future we should start seeing third-party window managers and desktop environments that can run on wayland.

Also, the GTK theme that is shown is the default GTK theme, blame the devs of that project for the default looking terrible.

[MartinN]

This is GREAT progress, Kristian et al!

Having said this, it will be CRITICAL to maintain the development momentum at Intel as well as, hopefully at RedHat+Canonical+Suse provided they can spare a resource or half time resource at least. Releasing prematurely, wihout AT LEAST A ROCK SOLID X.org port will mean Wayland's death on arrival. PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP, Kristian, Intel et al - DON'T FU*K THIS ONE UP!

Windows 8 is more then likely going to crash and burn from the outset, with Jobs gone Apple will live out its fad phase, Gabe from Steam & Blizzard are looking to port their titles to Linux, Ouya got 8 mil in funding with some vendors promising games.... Linux assassinated the competition on the server side and it is high time the same happens on the desktop.

The world, both first as well as third world countries, will finally be set free of Apple's and Microsoft's OS lockin. Linux will commoditize the OS.

With the rise of Linux on desktops/laptops/mobile (Medfield and onward), Intel will become so powerful in the not too distant future that the governments of the world are gonna want to take a piece of its ass, so God help them stay on the path of servanthood rather than self-worship and idolatry. Good thing Otellini is nothing like Jobs.

Gaming will start the fire, the parents will sink the cash for Linux hw/sw games, and porting of apps to XWayland will eventually begin to dig MS' & Apple's grave.

You read it here first.

G'day Bruce!

[elanthis]

Are those screenshots really the best way to show wayland? That is a really ugly looking DE. I don't know if KDE looks like this by default but this is worse than win3.1.

On a randomish note:

This kind of reaction is why most big software (and media) companies keep their shit under wraps for so long. If the consumers see early pre-alpha dev photos, they react exactly like you just did, and then negative buzz and consumer disinterest can occur. So companies keep stuff super mega secret until the marketing team is ready to blow your mind with more or less completely finished products. Even in games where you see videos and such months or years before release, those videos are so polished and at such a high level of quality only because the project had already been in development for years. Whatever work remains is largely tuning and tweaking by that point.

One would hope that a community -- rather than merely a collection of consumers -- would not need to have things kept secret from them in order to avoid being bashed and ridiculed over a project that is clearly not meant to be ready for prime time.

[89c51]

One would hope that a community -- rather than merely a collection of consumers -- would not need to have things kept secret from them in order to avoid being bashed and ridiculed over a project that is clearly not meant to be ready for prime time.

I was about to comment on the same things you mentioned. Beat me to it.

I am just quoting the above to say that FOSS people are consumers and expect more or less the same things as someone who buys WIn or Mac. They want their DE to be usable, beautifull, technically advanced and trouble free. So in that respect they are expected to react the same way as someone that sees dev-versions of software.

[M1kkko]

This is a bad time to push Wayland. Valve is trying to port games, and Windows 8 is going to alienate users (who won't have a stable OS to move to due to Wayland). Obviously Wayland won't be ready to replace X for quite some time. I see the advantages, but it needs to be an extremely smooth transition or it will cause more problems than it solves.

Keep in mind that this is just an early technology demo; this stuff isn't going to be forced down our throats just yet. And when it is, the end user (hopefully) won't notice any negative side effects. Remember that X applications run atop xwayland faster than on the native x-server.

[mark45]

Jesus, and I thought people here were emotionally attached to OpenGL...

Jesus, I still find people emotionally attached to DirectX, even after Valve showed GL is faster. Those guys still keep trolling about DX being alledgedly snappier and stuff, hopeless people.

Side note, an improved clip of Rebecca's Friday:

[adrianovic]

Remember that X applications run atop xwayland faster than on the native x-server.

how do you know? i mean, are there benchmarks somewhere public? because that sounds amazing, if that is true.

[uid313]

Why are GTK and Qt not themed?
Looks awful when not!

Also, the GTK theme that is shown is the default GTK theme, blame the devs of that project for the default looking terrible.

I wish GTK and Qt improved their default themes.