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 [External Link] 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/ [External Link]

I've been shown a different log in IRC now https://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2017/04/07/%23snappy.html [External Link] 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/ [External Link]
I can't confirm it now (arstechnica dns servers are down), but wikipedia obviously did:
Wikipedia: Mir (Software) [External Link]

Mir 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]

On 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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While I see the need to sell spare keys, and I personally do not have a solution to the issue of fraud there, I would argue that the platforms (GoG, Steam, itch.io) would be the only ones being able to implement a safer system.

They know their keys and by providing a marketplace they could ensure keys are only sold once on their platform.

I go the way down that I prefer buying on Steam over all other platforms. Partly because Valve has helped us a lot and I think they should profit for that, partly because it's convenient. If something isn't provided on steam - as some indie titles, I prefer buying directly from the developers.

I never used a reseller. And I do not plan to do so. If I ain't got the cash for the games, I'll have to wait for a deal.

I can say that pretty easily being from Austria. I'm already annoyed that we pay more than the americans because the dollar is weak. It's even worse in Russia, Romania, Poland and other countries, where salery usually isn't that high. Now we can argue if we need geoblocking for the sellers being able to provide the games cheaper in some countries to be able to adjust pricing to the countries. I personally am not a friend of geoblocking, but hell - I have polish and romanian friends living on 300-400 euro a month (and I bet there are a lot of other countries, probably in south america - I'm not really up-to-date with saleries there). I can't see them spending 60 € on a title. Ever. And this is the market of the resellers.

Developers / Publishers / Selling platforms need to find a solution to that. More-or-less excluding countries for not having high saleries is a loss in the end for everybody. Gamers who can't play, and publishers, since a few hundred thousand copies for 10 € is still a lot of cash to have or not have.

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Not my kind of game. Great there is a (even reduced graphcis) workaround. But Epic Games really should pull their finger out of the nose and fix this .. it's been a while.

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I think in general racing ports do not sell that well because the audience seems a lot smaler than on RPGs or MOBAs, or even FPS.

None of my buddies plays racing games, everyone plays RPGs, RTS, TBS and FPS and MOBA games.

I myself am not the typical Racing audience either. I just wanted Dirt Rally ... Still need to buy it though, but I will wait until I can get myself a decent racing wheel for Linux. Still undecided, those I like are way too expensive for casual use.

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