14 DAY TRIAL // Ubuntu developers are working to bring Mir and Unity 8 to the desktop, but users need to know that there will be some minor issues, at least until these new technologies become more mature.
Mir and Unity 8 will eventually land on the desktop, but that doesn't mean that the bulk of the developer's work is done. In fact, they will need to work even harder to provide the rest of the features that are needed by the community. Canonical will focus on bringing the best desktop experience at first, but that will mean that some of the current features available on Unity 7 won't be available right from the start.
Many users take some option available in Unity 7 for granted, like the ability to install themes or to use apps such as Conky. You can use them because Unity 7 has been around for a very long time, and it's been heavily optimized, but that won't be the case with Unity 8.
Conky won't work with Mir, at least not at first
We wrote yesterday that Unity 8 won't be themable, at least not at first. This is not something high up on the list of priorities for the developers, but it doesn't mean that it won't be possible at some point. If you take the example of GNOME 3, you will notice the same kind of problems. When it first landed, you could not even do a simple right-click on the desktop.
During one of the Ubuntu Online Summit session, an Ubuntu user asked about Conky (an app that allows users to display information right on the desktop like weather, systems details, and so on) and Unity 8. It turns out that Conky wants special access to the display server, and Mir will most likely deny that access. Ubuntu developers do have some solutions in mind, but it's likely that Conky won't work when Unity 8 and Mir will be in a shippable state.
More details about the Unity 8 desktop can be found in this extremely interesting UOS 15.05 Unity 8 Demo session.
