Xorg vs. Wayland vs. Mir

wayland-vs-mir

The title of the news says it all. X11 has been the standard protocol for communicating with Xorg for decades., in addition to other X Window System implementations. Its first version appeared in 2004 and since then has been included in the main Linux distributions, such as Debian, Gentoo Linux, Fedora, Slackware, openSUSE, Mandriva, Cygwin / X and of course Ubuntu. Despite still being perfectly operational, Xorg was designed more than a decade ago and since then there have been numerous improvements in the area of ​​rendering. Roughly, all screen elements such as windows, buttons or fonts are no longer invoked on the server (how you should show it) by the clients (what you should show), to move on to a model in which the latter acquire all the prominence. We analyze the old Xorg and the great alternatives for the future, Wayland and Mir, in an article in which opinions and comments are open. Xorg has been the main implementation of X-Window in GNU/Linux for decades, but the old system on which it was based has changed substantially until the current era, almost disappearing completely. The current model relies primarily on the customer base, where pixelmaps or full images of the screen against the server and the window manager, both merging in what is finally shown to the user. It remains then to ask, what role is left for Xorg in this case if it is not the broker between the two above. In addition to incorporating another layer without real functions, involves an inherent slowdown to any application and one more point that must be secured within the system, since the application listens for any input and accepts requests from other window clients. Breaking out of the X11 protocol and starting over seemed like a good idea and thus the idea of Wayland, a graphical server protocol and library for Linux systems that emerged, as of 2010, as the application on which the future Unity would run. In addition, it was proposed as a standard for mobile platforms using Ubuntu's mobile operating system, Ubuntu Touch. wayland

Visualization example with Wayland

During all these years, the people of Canonical have shown their intention to fully support this application in their distributions, but the reality is that even today it has not managed to fully take off. In fact, the first versions of Ubuntu Touch made use of SurfaceFlinger, Android's graphical server, to carry out the rendering task and, In the latest versions, Mir has been the engine designed to run on all editions of the Ubuntu operating system, gradually replacing the two previously mentioned. The main idea has not been lost: Eliminating intermediate layers means an increase in the performance of the system since less data must be redirected to the respective clients and this means a greater increase in the security of the equipment. Wayland also does not require a driver for 2D graphics, unlike Xorg with DDX since everything is done on the client side, reusing the DRM / KMS drivers to show the final result of the image. chrism

Visualization example with Mir

Mir does not suppose a substantial variation of what Wayland supposes, apart from implementing its own protocol and using its own APIs. Nevertheless is specific to Ubuntu and Unity 8, which is both an advantage, due to its own optimized design, and a disadvantage, as it cannot be included in other flavors of Linux. The latest beta released from Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakketi Yak) comes with a Mir update, which is also being optimized for better performance under Nvidia card drivers.

With all this information, the debate is served: will Mir get full support from Canonical or will he coexist with Wayland? What future will this second graphic server hold? Will they be projects that will be supported jointly towards the same common goal?


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  1.   peret said

    It seems perfect to me that Ubuntu has chosen to use and develop MIR. But please stop attacking Wayland with technical arguments that are incorrect at best. Wayland has already been used on mobile platforms such as Sailfish or Tizen. In the case of Sailfish, Jolla launched a phone in 2013. On the other hand, KDE, Gnome and Enlightenment three of the most used desktops are going to use Wayland. In KDE, today it is already possible to run a session under wayland in a stable way (I know because I have done it). GNome has announced that it will pass to wayland by default in its next version. So as you see, Wayland is far from being a "backward" project.
    The only reason Canonical has for developing MIR is to have complete control over the technology. It is in its full right. But instead of skimping his resources on smearing Wayland, he should devote himself to developing MIR and its never-ending convergence.

    1.    Wire said

      But where in this article is Wayland attacked? It is not an overdue project, especially since Canonical abandoned it for Mir. Still, both seem still a long way from replacing the old Xorg.

  2.   q3s said

    "Peret" I do not think that anyone is attacking anyone, simply the author gave his point of view .. You will have yours, share it with others and let us (the readers) understand the stage of the projects! Thanks for the note!

  3.   Jorge Romero said

    mmmmm
    But most of the distributions will use Wayland like Fedora or Opensuse (I use it), Arch and derivatives.
    And you also have to take into account the drivers of the graphics cards have to adapt to a protocol and surely it will be Wayland

    Mir is just a market strategy

  4.   g said

    It doesn't matter as long as both are functional