Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 13th Feb 2012 23:44 UTC
"Although current discussion of the Linux desktop tends to focus on the disharmony around Unity and the GNOME shell, the true revolution on the desktop is taking place out of sight of users. The Wayland display server is expected to reach version 1.0 later this year, and is seen by many as the long term replacement for the X Window System, with real potential to improve and transform the performance of the desktop for Linux users."
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RE: Wayland does not "replace" X
by Delgarde on Tue 14th Feb 2012 01:26
in reply to "Wayland does not "replace" X"
Member since:2008-08-19
From the FAQ: "X will always be there on the side."
X is effectively the remote desktop protocol for Linux. The only strangeness has been that Linux has used "remote desktop" on the local machine as well. Wayland basically gives an app direct access to the compositor.
I hope like hell that this is only implemented for games or other "special" applications, and that toolkits like GTK and QT add Wayland support for better performance. I'd hate to lose the ability to realistically use a linux desktop remotely.
X is effectively the remote desktop protocol for Linux. The only strangeness has been that Linux has used "remote desktop" on the local machine as well. Wayland basically gives an app direct access to the compositor.
I hope like hell that this is only implemented for games or other "special" applications, and that toolkits like GTK and QT add Wayland support for better performance. I'd hate to lose the ability to realistically use a linux desktop remotely.
From my own reading on Wayland, X isn't being kept for remoting - it's being kept for compatibility, since apps compiled for X aren't going to go away any time soon. Support for remoting is incidental to that.
For native Wayland apps, the hypothetical solution to remoting involves a custom compositor - the app has direct access to *a* compositor, but it's one that simply proxies everything across a network to the real one.
(Hypothetical because nobody has actually done it, but this is how the Wayland guys think remoting should be done - in the compositor, not in the rendering API where apps have to deal with it.)
RE[2]: Wayland does not "replace" X
by tuma324 on Tue 14th Feb 2012 03:41
in reply to "RE: Wayland does not "replace" X"
Member since:2010-04-09
"From the FAQ: "X will always be there on the side."
X is effectively the remote desktop protocol for Linux. The only strangeness has been that Linux has used "remote desktop" on the local machine as well. Wayland basically gives an app direct access to the compositor.
I hope like hell that this is only implemented for games or other "special" applications, and that toolkits like GTK and QT add Wayland support for better performance. I'd hate to lose the ability to realistically use a linux desktop remotely.
X is effectively the remote desktop protocol for Linux. The only strangeness has been that Linux has used "remote desktop" on the local machine as well. Wayland basically gives an app direct access to the compositor.
I hope like hell that this is only implemented for games or other "special" applications, and that toolkits like GTK and QT add Wayland support for better performance. I'd hate to lose the ability to realistically use a linux desktop remotely.
From my own reading on Wayland, X isn't being kept for remoting - it's being kept for compatibility, since apps compiled for X aren't going to go away any time soon. Support for remoting is incidental to that.
For native Wayland apps, the hypothetical solution to remoting involves a custom compositor - the app has direct access to *a* compositor, but it's one that simply proxies everything across a network to the real one.
(Hypothetical because nobody has actually done it, but this is how the Wayland guys think remoting should be done - in the compositor, not in the rendering API where apps have to deal with it.) "
Great explanation, I wish someone will write a network-transparent compositor using Wayland.
So we can debunk the myth that "Wayland won't be able to do network transparency" and so that people can actually learn how Wayland works.
Edited 2012-02-14 03:57 UTC
RE[2]: Wayland does not "replace" X
by renox on Tue 14th Feb 2012 09:30
in reply to "RE: Wayland does not "replace" X"
Member since:2005-07-06
From my own reading on Wayland, X isn't being kept for remoting - it's being kept for compatibility
I have my doubts: the desktop projects (KDE, Gnome) which do a lot of maintenance of the toolkits are quite famous for their lack of compatibility.
So I wouldn't be surprised that soon they'll say, now we don't support anymore X, Wayland is better..
And IMHO noone has suggested a convincing remote mechanism for WAN access on Wayland (no rewrite everything in HTML isn't convincing, neither is send full buffers).
RE: Wayland does not "replace" X
by stabbyjones on Tue 14th Feb 2012 02:17
in reply to "Wayland does not "replace" X"
Member since:2008-04-15
That's a really simple way of describing it. +1!
I use the network capabilities of X on a regular basis and until there is a comparable feature in Wayland both are going to be living together for a few years yet.
The first time i opened up a remote nautilus window at work from my laptop at home; i was sold.
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2010-05-21
From the FAQ: "X will always be there on the side."
X is effectively the remote desktop protocol for Linux. The only strangeness has been that Linux has used "remote desktop" on the local machine as well. Wayland basically gives an app direct access to the compositor.
I hope like hell that this is only implemented for games or other "special" applications, and that toolkits like GTK and QT add Wayland support for better performance. I'd hate to lose the ability to realistically use a linux desktop remotely.