Ubuntu moving away from X

[markw-FJ05HQ0HCKaWd6l5hS35sQ at public.gmane.org]

> On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 12:29 PM, Mark Woodward <markw-FJ05HQ0HCKaWd6l5hS35sQ at public.gmane.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Is anyone disappointed by Shuttleworth's decision to move Ubuntu off of
>> X?
>>
>
> If you, like me, have no idea what Mark is talking about, check this out:
> http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/551
>
>
>> X is one of those things that I think is make unix "UNIX." The idea that
>> I can run any application on any machine and display its output on any
>> other machine is more than cool, it is a functionality that I use and
>> has "saved the day" on a number of occasions.
>>
>
> Wayland is not "moving away from X".

Sorry, I disagree.
>
>>From two years ago: "One of the goals is to get an X server running on
> Wayland, first in a full screen window (like Xnest), then rootless, since
> X
> just isn't going aways anytime soon." (
> http://hoegsberg.blogspot.com/2008/11/premature-publicity-is-better-than-no.html
> )

The problem with a "compatibility layer" is, of course, the compatibility
layer.

This now means we start to split the development efforts. People who
invest the time to support the new technology and those that don't. The
ones that don't, of course, suffer. Those that do, look better, but are
less functional IMHO than their X counterparts.

In the end, the user suffers. Have you used "X" programs on macintosh? Its
terrible. That's what Shuttleworth is going to bring to ubuntu.

X works. X can do everything that Shuttleworth wants to do. X has features
that Mac and Windows can't even touch.

>
>>From yesterday:  "We’re confident we’ll be able to retain the ability to
>> run
> X applications in a compatibility mode, so this is not a transition that
> needs to reset the world of desktop free software." (
> http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/551)
>
> My guess is that there'll be some really cool things coming out of Ubuntu,
> and the fact that they're not just throwing out X means that they're
> interested in actually advancing the state of the art in open-source
> graphical display environments...which is cool. And about which we should
> all be excited.
>
> Gordon
>