Ubuntu's Unity Next Running On Mir Display Server

Canonical developers have hit the milestone of being able to run their "Unity Next" desktop atop the Mir Display Server. The work is still very early, but it shows for Ubuntu Touch they can swap out Android's SurfaceFlinger for Mir.

Unity Next is the next-generation implementation of Canonical's multi-form-factor desktop for Ubuntu written in Qt/QML. The Mir Display Server is still very primitive and not feature complete nor even on par with Wayland's features, but when using the latest code along with the out-of-tree Qt Mir back-end, it's possible to start running Unity Next.

Thomas Voß of Canonical posted proof of this early feat for switching out Android's SurfaceFlinger for the Mir compositor whereby they are leveraging the HWC 1.1 hardware compositor. The short video of Unity Next on Mir from the Google Nexus 4 smart-phone is embedded below.

Display Gmail Unread Message Count On Your Desktop With Gmail Conky - Ubuntu/Linux Mint

In this tutorial, we will help you install a nice Gmail conky script that will show on your desktop unread message count of your Gmail account. Here is a screenshot of it under Ubuntu:

1. Gmail-Conky Installation

Open the terminal and run these commands:

sudo apt-get install conky-all 

cd /tmp 

wget http://goo.gl/Mk9Ln -O gmail_conky.zip 

unzip -q gmail_conky.zip 

cd GmailConky 

mkdir -p ~/.conky ~/.Gmail_Conky 

cp gmail.py  mail.png ~/.conky 

cp conkyrcGmail ~/.Gmail_Conky

2. Adding Your Gmail Account

Edit the gmail.py file with this command:

gedit ~/.conky/gmail.py

For Linux Mint:

pluma ~/.conky/gmail.py

Add now your Gmail username and password, then save the file and exit:

3. Starting Gmail-Conky

You can now run the script with this command:

conky -c ~/.Gmail_Conky/conkyrcGmail

If you want to start it automatically, create a new file and add the following lines:

#!/bin/bash
sleep 15
conky -c ~/.Gmail_Conky/conkyrcGmail

Save your files and give it execution permission with this command:

chmod +x gmail-file-name

Finally, add it to "Startup Applications" to make it load after you login.