With convergence in mind, Ubuntu Linux scraps Wayland

Longtime Ubuntu Linux fans may remember Canonical's announcement back in 2010 that it was planning to adopt the OpenGL-based Wayland display management system instead of the venerable X Window system for Ubuntu Linux.

That intent was reiterated last May by Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth in Ubuntu Open Week, but now it looks like plans have changed.

Specifically, just ahead of this week's Ubuntu Developer Summit, product strategy engineering manager Oliver Ries announced that the company's new platform-agnostic focus has caused it to drop Wayland and instead create a display manager of its own.

'Some changes are necessary'

"In order to implement the vision of converged devices, some changes to our display stack are necessary," Ries wrote in an announcement on the Ubuntu mailing lists on Monday.

"After thorough research, looking at existing options, and weighing in costs and benefits, we have decided to roll our own display server, Mir."

Today's users expect a more consistent and a more integrated user experience than what is possible using the old X Window system, the Ubuntu Wiki explains. Wayland, meanwhile, is similar enough that it's likely to suffer from similar problems, it adds.

According to an initial set of specs, Mir is "a system-level component targeted as a replacement for the X Window server system to unlock next-generation user experiences for devices ranging from Linux desktop to mobile devices powered by Ubuntu."

'By Ubuntu for Ubuntu'

Mir will be "driven by the designs and requirements that our larger vision dictates--no compromises, no crude hacks, fully testable and tested, performance in mind, support for legacy X applications, developed by Ubuntu for Ubuntu," Ries explained in another blog post.

Mir is also part of Canonical's transition from its current Unity desktop environment to Unity Next, by which the cross-platform software will adapt itself automatically to the hardware running it.

Toward that end, the Ubuntu project is also beginning to move Unity away from OpenGL toolkit Nux and towards a Qt/QML-based implementation instead.

"Having one single code base that serves all variants of input and display types will help greatly to deliver the unified user experience we are committing to," Ries explained.

Complete convergence by 2014

By May Canonical hopes to finish the first steps towards integrating Unity Next with Mir and start iterating the actual shell development, "providing developers with a solid platform and designers with means for rapid prototyping," it says.

April 2014 is when it aims to achieve complete convergence across form factors, with Mir serving as the carrier.

Meet 'Consort,' a brand-new classic Linux desktop

There seems to be no end in sight to the enduring popularity of the classic GNOME 2 Linux desktop, and this week afforded yet more evidence.

Following hard on the heels of the launch last week of the classically minded Fuduntu 2013.1, the SolusOS Linux project on Wednesday launched a new fork of GNOME Classic.

"Well, it's official," wrote Ikey Doherty, the SolusOS project's founder and lead developer, in a blog post  on the topic. "We've forked GNOME Classic (fallback).

"The reasoning for the name is very simple," Doherty added. "The desktop always accompanies you."

Nautilus becomes Athena

Linux fans may recall that SolusOS was already focused on offering a classic GNOME experience, even before this latest move.

The distro's first release featured the GNOME 2.30 desktop, and it planned early on to go with GNOME Classic, which is a custom version of GNOME 3.4.

More recently, however, the project team decided to fork GNOME Classic altogether rather than just modifying it. In particular, SolusOS has forked gnome-panel to create consort-panel; Nautilus, creating Athena; gnome-session-fallback, to become consort-session; and Metacity, creating Consortium.

'Virtually identical'

The primary rationale for the fork, Doherty wrote, was "to protect the users of our desktop components.

"Pinning patched packages higher than underlying packages proves far too tricky," he explained. "The amount of patches in each component qualifies fork-status anyway, so it was time to admit it."

The result, he added, is the ability to offer an experience "virtually identical" to GNOME 2 while also improving on it without requiring hardware acceleration. Classic old GNOME 2 features being brought back include right click-interaction on the panel and GNOME 2 applet support.

Modern components

The project team is also writing a new wrapper API that will allow Python GNOME 2 applets to run natively on consort-panel, Doherty noted.

Meanwhile, by using modern components, Consort will maintain total compatibility with the current GNOME suite.

SolusOS 2 Alpha 7 will be the first to feature Consort--the software is currently in its sixth alpha version--but users of other distros with GTK3 will be able to install it as well, Doherty said.

Five reasons 2012 was a great year for Linux

The end of the year is always a good time to take stock of where things stand in any niche or field, andLinux is no exception.

There's no doubt that there have been challenges for the free and open source operating system over the course of 2012--the Secure Boot challenge  comes immediately to mind--but so, too, have there been numerous successes.

All in all, I believe the good has outweighed the bad for Linux this past year. Here are five specific reasons.

1. One *billion* dollars

Perhaps most obvious among Linux's accomplishments this year was the fact that Red Hat finally and officially attained its long-anticipated status as the first billion-dollar open source company. That's a testament not just to Red Hat's own business acumen, but also the fact that Linux can be profitable--and that's a big deal for increasing future business interest in the platform.

2. The Digital Divide

Those of us in the tech industry can argue over the merits and penetration of desktop Linux until we're blue in the proverbial face, but meanwhile a momentous shift has quietly begun.

I'm talking about the wave of tiny, inexpensive, Linux-powered PCs that flooded the market this year, putting significant computing power within closer reach not just for enthusiasts but also for those who would not otherwise be able to afford it.

It's truly a revolution in computing, as I've said before, and it's expanding Linux's reach even beyond the countless Android-using masses. Not only that, but it's surely going a long way toward bridging theDigital Divide.

3. Gaming acceptance

Gaming platforms may not matter much to many in the business world, but the fact is, gaming is extremely important to a whole lot of PC users. Over the years, in fact, a relative lack of games has been a key reason held up by many to explain why they didn't make the switch to Linux.

Well, this year all that changed when Valve announced that it was porting Steam to Linux, citing theWindows 8 "catastrophe" as a big part of its reason.

More recently, THQ is considering making a similar move, according to reports.

What it means: Linux users are increasingly being viewed as a market worth catering to, and that will only mean more and better applications across the board in the future.

4. Preloaded prevalence

This past year has also seen a dramatic increase in the number of hardware options offering Linux preloaded. Over the course of 2012, in fact, we saw machines from not just specialty makersZaReason, System76, and ThinkPenguin offer this option, but also Asus, Dell, and more.

With every new entry that arrives, consumers' choices expand, and that can only be a good thing.

5. An open window

Finally, it's become patently obvious that Windows 8 has encountered a cooler reception than Microsoft might have liked, and that means nothing but opportunity for Linux. With Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal," in fact, Canonical's popular Linux distribution has actually surpassed Windows 8 in many respects, particularly from a business user's perspective.

Tremendous inertia will allow Windows' dominance to continue for years to come, of course.

Still, with Windows 8 the landscape shifted, I believe, and desktop Linux has begun to compete on an even footing. I can't wait to see where that leads in 2013 and beyond.

Dell's 'Sputnik' Ubuntu Linux ultrabook: First in a new line?

Linux fans may recall the excitement that greeted the launch of Dell's "Project Sputnik" earlier this year.

Made possible through an internal skunkworks effort, the project aimed to create an Ubuntu-preloadedlaptop targeting developers, in particular, with what Dell has called a "client to cloud" solution.

By midsummer, Dell said the associated beta program was exceeding expectations, and today the resulting ultrabook officially launched in the U.S. and Canada.

I spoke earlier this week with Barton George, director of the Web vertical at Dell, along with Michael Cote, its director of cloud strategy, about Dell's strategy and goals for the new release.

Deploying to the cloud

First, some specs: Dubbed the XPS 13, Developer Edition, the new device sports an i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB memory. Pricing is $1,549, which includes a year of professional support. International availability will be extended early next year, Dell says.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" is the operating system, of course, and on the software side it's accompanied by a basic set of drivers, tools, and utilities along with the cloud launcher and profile tool that have been a big part of the project's focus all along.

"The idea behind the profile tool is to provide access to a library of community-created profiles on GitHub, such as Ruby and Android, to quickly set up your development environments and tool chains," George explained. The cloud launcher, meanwhile, lets developers create "microclouds" on their laptop, simulating an at-scale environment, and then deploy that environment seamlessly to the cloud.

Both tools were also recently launched on GitHub. The video below provides a brief introduction to the new machine.

'As open as possible'

Since the launch of the Sputnik project, Dell's goals have stayed essentially the same, though a few tactics have changed, George told me.

During the testing process, for example, "at least half the people wanted more RAM," he noted, resulting in the full 8GB in the product launching today. 4GB is the base standard in the XPS 13 line.

Another thing Dell learned through feedback is that "it's critical for developers that the overall packaging works out of the box," Cote pointed out. "We're trying to make everything as open as possible and provide a good Ubuntu experience for developers."

'Something we're looking at'

Then, too, there's the "big pent-up desire for this outside the U.S.," George said. "We're working on how to do that."

Meanwhile, developers with "beefier work" to do frequently requested a "big brother version" of the device launching today, he added. "That's something we're definitely looking at."

Given that the new machine is marketed toward developers, I asked if Dell would be making any effort to ensure that only developers get to buy it. In fact, Dell has set it apart slightly from the rest of the XPS line on its site "so people don't get confused," George said, and will be promoting it primarily through developer-oriented publications.

'We have struck a nerve'

At least in theory, however, anyone--regardless of their skills--could purchase one.

In fact, "if this inspires use cases that are different, that's one of the things we're hoping for," George concluded. "We have struck a nerve and found something people are very interested in and passionate about."

Ubuntu on the Nexus 7 project well underway

Canonical community manager Jono Bacon has announced that testers and developers are needed to help bring Ubuntu 13.04 to the Nexus 7 tablet, as part of an effort to move the Linux-based operating system onto multiple platforms.

MORE NEXUS: Hurricane Sandy shuts down Google's Android event

MORE UBUNTU: Ubuntu 12.10 review: Quantal Quetzal is quite adequate

The differences between running an OS on a tablet and running it on a PC are substantial, Bacon said in a blog post, which is why extensive re-tooling and thorough testing are needed.

"Topics such as battery life, memory footprint, and support for sensors are all areas in which needs and expectations vary widely between a PC and a mobile devices," he wrote, adding that this is a prime focus in the Ubuntu 13.04 development cycle.

Getting the underlying software working, at the moment, is a bigger priority than ensuring that Ubuntu is customized for day-to-day use, said Bacon.

"This will mean that some user-facing parts of the experience won't make a lot of sense on the tablet, but we want to get the foundations optimized before we focus on these higher level challenges," he added.

Bacon also clarified in the comments that this would be a native build of Ubuntu for the Nexus 7, not something running on top of Android.

In an earlier blog post, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said that the Nexus 7 would serve as a reference device for mobile Ubuntu development, as the operating system becomes less resource-intensive and better-suited to dealing with the limitations of mobile hardware.

Hardware updates to the Nexus 7 were thought to be forthcoming at a Google event today in New York, but Google canceled these plans due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy. However, according to a report from Droid Life, Office Depot stores have already begun selling the new 32GB models of the device for $249, while dropping the price for a 16GB model to $199 -- a move that had been widely rumored in the lead-up to Google's announcement.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

Read more about software in Network World's Software section.

Good news for job hunters in Android, Linux, and open source

Job candidates with tech skills in general and Linux skills in particular tend to face better-than-average prospects in today's otherwise gloomy hiring marketplace, but in the past few days the outlook appears to have gotten even brighter.

Following hard on the heels of news from a few weeks ago that DevOps is a growing trend, three separate reports in recent days suggest a particularly rosy future for those with skills in Android, Linux, and open source software.

"Top Five Tech Jobs Point to Opportunity for Linux Pro's" was the Friday headline at Linux.com, for example, in which author Jennifer Cloer reports on staffing and consulting firm Robert Half International's new Salary Guide listing the top five most lucrative tech jobs for 2013.

'A fundamental understanding of Linux'

Mobile app developers, wireless network engineers, network engineers, data modelers, and portal administrators are the most promising jobs for salaries next year, the publication predicts, and "the most important thing they have in common is that they each require a fundamental understanding of Linux," Cloer notes.

Also on Friday there was the headline, "Open source hobbyists now in high demand" over at ITworld, in which author Brian Proffitt mulls open source operating system Contiki.

Then, on Monday came a report from IT careers site Dice naming several key skills being sought at all-time, record-high levels.

'It's time to take advantage'

Software development and quality assurance lead the list, but among those next in line are Python, Ruby on Rails, Android, and JBoss.

"The need for open source programming language skills that power a huge number of Web applications and technologies is evident in requests for Python and Ruby," Dice explains. "Both have hit all-time highs in six of the 10 months in 2012."

As for Linux-based Android, job postings seeking skills in that area are up a full 33 percent over last year, Dice reports.

In short, "technology professionals with these skills and expertise are being sought like never before on Dice," the company concludes. "It's time to take advantage."

'Cotton Candy' Linux PC-on-a-stick ships at last

There's been a seemingly endless parade of tiny, Linux-powered PCs entering the market in recent months, including most recently the $49 Cubieboard and the $89 UG802.

It's nothing short of a revolution in computing, as I've noted before, and recently one of the earliest contenders to be announced--the Raspberry Pi-like Cotton Candy--began shipping at last after nearly a yearlong wait.

You have impatiently (and patiently) been waiting for us to start releasing the Cotton Candy, reads a forum post from earlier this month by FXI Technologies project administrator Borgar Ljosland. We are now doing it.

'A consistent experience on any screen'

To recap, the ARM-based Cotton Candy is a $199 USB-sized device that allows users a single, secure point of access to all personal cloud services and apps through their favorite operating system, while delivering a consistent experience on any screen, in the Norwegian project's own words.

Offering a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, a quad-core, 1.2GHz ARM Mali-400 MP GPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and HDMI output, the device is designed to support operating systems including not just Android but also Ubuntu Linux.

It will serve as a companion to smartphones, tablets, and notebook PC and Macs, as well as adding smart capabilities to existing displays, TVs, set-top boxes, and other media that support USB mass storage.

Though shipping was originally planned for this past spring, a number of factors contributed to the delay, Ljosland explained, including a more resource-intensive route on the software side than was originally planned.

The first original batch of shipments was also aborted due to a problem that was discovered in the certification process.

'Now is the time'

Now, however, a developer-oriented version of the PC-on-a-stick is available, albeit with noticeable limitations that will be addressed in upcoming software releases, FXI says. Scandinavian registered pre-orders are apparently being fulfilled first.

Its still early days for the OS support, but if you want to get a head start and begin testing the device; now is the time, Ljosland wrote. We are depending on your feedback and input to guide us towards the goal of Cotton Candy powering the screens of the world.

More details and ordering information are available on the FXI site.