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Maui Shell is a Beautiful Vision for the Future of Linux
The Maui Project recently shared designs for a new convergent Linux shell that will work
across mobile devices and regular desktops — and it really fires the imagination.
Now, “convergent” Linux UIs aren’t new. Ubuntu tried (and failed) to materialise its
idea of one with Unity 8. What would be new is a convergent Linux shell that’s actually
realised in real, usable, working code.
KDE Plasma (with Plasma Mobile) and GNOME (with Phosh) are already making major inroads
in this area so there’s plenty of momentum that Maui Shell, which is also rooted in KDE
technologies, can take advantage of.
If you’re a KDE connoisseur I’d wager you’ve probably tried a Maui app or two
already. Index, their adaptive file manager, is a particular highlight, regardless of whether
you use it on a KDE phone or a KDE desktop. Personally, I plan to get knee-deep in KDE
tech next year so you should expect a few write ups of Maui apps in the coming weeks.
But their slicky-designed, well-featured convergent apps are only one part of the computing equation.
To tie the experience together neatly they want to create a unifying bow, hence the introduction
of Maui Shell.
Maui Shell’s Vision
Maui Shell is made up of a shell container named ‘Cask’ and a compositor called ‘Zpace’.
These components work together to tailor the user experience to the screen-size and form-factor
they run on.
Cask handles the core UI components like the top bar, dock, and quick settings pods, while
Zpace takes on the task of windowing, workspaces, and animations via the Qt Wayland Compositor
API.
When on a large screen with pointer input the shell presents a UI designed (primarily)
for a mouse and keyboard. The on-screen elements behave accordingly, e.g., the app launcher
shows above the on-screen dock, and maximised windows don’t go full-screen.
When on a narrower display with touch input the shell contracts and adapts to make better
use of the available space. The launcher, for instance, opens full-screen with easy-to-prod
icons. Maximised windows run full height and width (though two can be snapped side-by-side).
Great, so when can I use it? Expectation setting time: Maui Shell is a
work in progress. It is not finished or close to being finished. Early (functional) builds
are already available, and the source code is up on Github. However, at this stage many
features you may expect (e.g., session manager, settings) are missing, while others (e.g.,
dock, visual workspaces) are in rough formative states.
That said, this project is super promising and something I plan to keep an eye on.
It is already possible to test Maui Shell in the latest Nitrux OS release, albeit as
a separate session (where caveats apply). A formal alpha release is planned for March
of 2022, a beta release in June 2022, and the first stable release by September 2022.
Don’t write those dates down in ink; development of something as huge as a new desktop shell
is unlikely to be easy or without unexpected hurdles.
Still, I’m excited for this project and hope its code finds its way into other distros
for wider reach, testing, and development sooner rather than later. Unity 8’s development
stalled because it was to hard to run reliably.
With so many exciting things happening in the Linux space there’s never been a better
time to be part of it.
:: More ::
Maui Shell is Nitrux's new converged desktop, debuting in system version 1.8
One of the most interesting things about Nitrux as a project is Maui, a framework built with
KDE and Kirigami technology that lays the foundations to facilitate the creation of
convergent applications for Linux, Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. More recently, Nitrux
makers have wanted to go one step further with the Maui Shell , a converged desktop
shell capable of adapting to mobiles and desktops.
Those responsible have explained that “the goal of Maui Shell is to implement a convergent
desktop shell with different form factors, from mobile phones and tablets to desktop
computers. Maui Shell will accommodate multiple form factors and there is no need for multiple
versions to target different form factors . " At a basic level, it is made up of two
parts:
Cask, which is the shell's container for item templates such as panels, pop-ups, cards,
etc. The upper panel is divided into two sections, a left that supports notifications and the
calendar and a right in which the system properties that give access to volume, shutdown, etc.
are located. Each section has sub-elements called PanelItem that have a series of cards
associated with them. For his part, Zpace is the composer . In addition
to the design, it is responsible for placing the windows or surfaces in the Cask container.
It uses Qt's Wayland composition API and includes initial support for workspaces.
In other words, Nitrux enters the desktop environment with Maui Shell. To expose the
more superficial elements a little more, we will briefly explain what Cask makes available:
A panel at the top that is responsible for showing notifications on the left and shortcuts
to network settings, brightness, audio and other things on the right (we have already
explained this). A dock with pinned applications located at
the bottom of the screen. A launcher that can be opened from the dock
to get the full list of applications. Maui Shell has sessions on X11 and Wayland
, but from the Nitrux project they warn that it is still in an early phase of its development
and that it has a lot of work ahead of it to be usable, especially on Wayland, where
a simple " ctrl + C ”(or another keyboard shortcut) can cause you to log out.
At the feature level, the developers are now working on the support of PulseAudio, Bluetooth
via Bluedevil, drag and drop, network switches, workspaces, MPRI control, the launcher, the
dock, the panels and the XDG extension- shell, while multi- touch support, session manager,
configuration panel and XWayland extension are still absent. In the gallery located just
below it is shown, in this order, how Cask looks on a desk, a tablet and a smartphone.
Maui Shell can now be used in Nitrux 1.8 Maui Shell is not just a toast to the sun,
but is already available in Nitrux 1.8 , the latest version of the Debian-based distribution
without systemd that stands out for incorporating Nomad Desktop, a modified KDE Plasma with
an attractive aesthetic finish.
As novelties, we find the incorporation of Maui Shell (the sessions are named as Cask),
which can be selected through the graphical SDDM session manager to start both the Wayland
session and the Xorg session. As a kernel there is Linux 5.15 LTS and the Maui suite
of applications is also present.
The technological base of the desktop and some of the pre-installed applications is
made up of KDE Plasma 5.23.4 , KDE Frameworks 5.89 and KDE Gear 21.12 . The desktop has
been added by default Latte Dock, a component widely used among KDE users that this year
has made the leap to multi- desktop support .
Focusing on elements that are not very visible to the user, Nitrux 1.8 has switched to using
XFS as the default file system instead of Btrfs and has added 113 profiles to AppArmor,
the security module for the Linux kernel whose development has been led since many years
ago by Canonical and competing with SELinux, developed by Red Hat.
The KDE System Monitor has been customized with two custom pages to track I / O rates,
available storage, and GPU statistics such as VRAM, GPU usage, frequencies, and temperature.
All the details of Nitrux 1.8 are available in the official announcement , while the system
can be downloaded from the website of the distribution . More facilities cannot be put
to use Maui Shell, although, as we have already said, it is important to keep in mind that
it is in an early phase of its development, so at this time the experience it offers may
not be satisfactory.
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