I loved Myst. Will give Quern a hands-on soon.

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Quoting: RedjeI like the idea of new linux tech site, I hope you can make it more casual compared to phonorix :).

I have mixed feeling about ubuntu dropping unity, altho unity7 has issues, I like the simplicity that it has.
The casual people that I showed Ubuntu most of the time like it more then other distro's because of the simplicity.

I hope Ubuntu 18.04 will keep the unity7/8 feeling. Imho it's important for ubuntu to keep its simplicity.

They broke once, they'll break it another time. Even though, customizing gnome3 today to look like unity isn't that complicated anymore. The issue is that GNOME likes to break stuff with each release on their shell, so that could become an issue delivering a unity-like experience.

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For GoL and a "linux-news-site":
I wouldn't need one.

On the countrary:
If he does it, and does it good, he may gain traction of more than just linux gamers (and we're just a portion of the linux users. A rather small one I'd guess).

Comparing it to "phoronix" or similar, if the news-site is "n00b friendly" or even friendly for non-graphics-kernel-people adding enough technical background, I do not see many sites covering it that way. Looking at phoronix - they seem to expect everyone knowing what "VK_KHR_push_descriptor was added as a way to allow descriptors to be written into command buffers." means. I personally know what that means, but probably not too many of us do. Though, what I do not know is what would be the alternative to VK_KHR_push_descriptor, since I didn't use Vulkan yet and I'm not familiar with the API. Okay, that would probably only be interesting for me, but what "descriptors to be written into command buffers" means a few more probably would like to know...

And now I want my well deserved friday beer :-).

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Quoting: GrimfistBecause there is one thing that Unity 7 did absolutly right compared to ALL other Linux DE's out there, in times where 16:9 widescreens are the norm, vertical screen space is very precious compared to horizontal screen space. Having a monstrous launcher bar at the bottom is just bad UX design when you can have it at the left side of the screen, preserving precious vertical screen space and using the available but only 80% or so used horizontal screen space. And delivering such a good out of the box experience is what drives Ubuntu.

Actually, this is just sometimes true.

When I use in example QtCreator, I have a project pane left, a debugging pane right and often the documentation frame to the right. I have less space horizontally than vertically....

Most 3d studios, animation software etc. are moving to a horizontal layout...

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Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: SkarjakComplaining about fragmentation is completely ridiculous.

No, it's not. Especially when it slows down Linux desktop progress a lot. You just don't pay attention, or aren't aware how complex moving from X11 to Wayland for many projects can be (consider Firefox, Wine, Qt, GTK, SDL and so on). Adding Mir to that mix could slow them down even more. So it's a major win that Mir is now being canned.

And fragmentation in an open environment will happen. Always. The question is where the fragmentation lays. On a layer like the desktop - phew, who cares. Yes, of course if all would pull on the same string a project would have more manpower. And more overhad, different views, and more discussions. I personally do not see the desktop layer as an issue, even if there are dozens of desktops out there. It would be nice if all would come together and work on one thing, if not - ok.

Breaking on a technological level as Mir and Wayland - that's an issue. That's a huge issue and had potential impact on dozens of projects (games, window managers, graphics drivers, toolkits .. just to name a few).

We are mostly focussed in the Linux world. There are not too many technological choices on a real low level (system whise, not talking package managers and stuff like that). Probably because it IS harder to devlop in that space, and there are not too many people with the skillset.

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Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: liamdaweI've been shown a different log in IRC now https://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2017/04/07/%23snappy.html where Mir will stay for IoT devices.

That's weird. The reason they are dropping Mir is lack of manpower to reinvent the wheel. Why would they keep it now, if Wayland can work on IoT devices all the same?

Wouldn't be the first time they go back on their word using Wayland in the end ;-).
I don't see more security issues with Wayland than I do with Mir.

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I've an early access key (I'm backer) and here-and-there play it. I do like what they want to do, but I have a real issue with all the loading screens.

I don't know if they're limited by engine choice, but this does not feel like a "continous" world. It feels like dozens of very-ultra-small areas for certain purposes where you get a 3 minute loading screen between those areas.

I hope for a fantasy / realistic MMORPG for Linux, but that one isn't going to be for me if they're serious about the world map + loading screens to ultra-tiny areas.

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Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: liamdaweHave they actually confirmed this anywhere? Mir wasn't mentioned in the initial post from Mark.

Ars Technica says that Canonical Community Manager Michael Hall confirmed it to them:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/ubuntu-unity-is-dead-desktop-will-switch-back-to-gnome-next-year/

I've been shown a different log in IRC now https://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2017/04/07/%23snappy.html where Mir will stay for IoT devices.

This may be still true, though, on the desktop it won't. IoT devices do not really.. let's say bother us gamers, do they? ;-).

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Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: STiATThough, in this article, you missed out the most important fact for Linux Gaming: Mir is going away. They confirmed that they'll be switching to Gnome+Wayland, abdoning Mir and Unity. That is the best thing about the news - we finally get rid of the split graphics stack in a critical path.

Have they actually confirmed this anywhere? Mir wasn't mentioned in the initial post from Mark.

Arstechnica apparently asked and got a response by Michael Hall:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/ubuntu-unity-is-dead-desktop-will-switch-back-to-gnome-next-year/
I can't confirm it now (arstechnica dns servers are down), but wikipedia obviously did:
Wikipedia: Mir (Software)

QuoteMir is a discontinued computer display server for the Linux operating system that was under development by Canonical Ltd. It was planned to replace the currently used X Window System for Ubuntu.[3][4][5]

QuoteOn April 5, 2017, Canonical announced that with the release of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, the Unity 8 interface would be abandoned in favor of GNOME. When asked if the decision would also mean the end of Mir development, Canonical's Michael Hall said that given the divergent development paths taken by Mir and its competitor, Wayland, "Using Mir simply isn't an option we have."[7]

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Well, first of all, I don't need another linux-news-site. Even though, I find covering important changes for Linux Desktops overall do have a place here - we are all Linux desktop users.

Though, in this article, you missed out the most important fact for Linux Gaming: Mir is going away. They confirmed that they'll be switching to Gnome+Wayland, abdoning Mir and Unity. That is the best thing about the news - we finally get rid of the split graphics stack in a critical path.

Personally, I don't feel the desktop shells need to be reduced. Hell, I don't even care what others use. What I see the need of is that the whole backend stuff (and especially settings backends and things like hotkey stuff etc.) need to be unified. What UI they lay above that is irrelevant. To be true, the worse part is supporting different distributions than different desktops.

Unity - as all desktops - was received differently. Some loved it, some hated it. In example, I hate Gnome3 with a passion, and find Gnome and KDE a lot too overloaded. That's why I switched to Budgie (after having had endless issues with Cinnamon and MATE, though, maybe they matured by now).

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