[ACTION REQUESTED] Please opt-in to the dev channel on Linux to test Aura

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Elliot Glaysher (Chromium)

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Mar 10, 2014, 5:42:01 PM3/10/14
to Chromium-dev

We aim to launch the Aura graphics stack on Linux in M35. Aura is a cross-platform graphics system, and the Aura frontend will replace the current GTK+ frontend.


We aim for Chromium to be the best browser across all platforms. While we’ve previously not launched features on all platforms simultaneously, shipping the same graphics stack and UI code on Windows, ChromiumOS and Linux should make it significantly easier to ship features simultaneously on all those platforms, without having to duplicate effort by having to write a separate Linux and Windows version of the feature.


This should also address long standing issues with GPU memory consumption and GPU rendering performance. Using our own graphics stack enables us to have one OpenGL context per window, instead of one OpenGL context per tab, which should significantly reduce GPU resource consumption.


We need your help. The use of Aura on desktop Linux is new and not well tested. We are replacing the entire frontend with a new one. We’re asking as many Linux users to opt into the dev channel as possible. If you’re using trunk builds, Aura has been the default build configuration for a month. If you’re using official Google Chrome builds, you can opt in by typing:


$ sudo apt-get install google-chrome-unstable


into your terminal. You can verify that you are using an aura build by the presence of an ‘a’ badge on the hotdog menu. If you encounter problems, you can quickly downgrade to google-chrome-stable; the unstable channel has its own profile directory on Linux.


When you encounter problems, please log them at crbug.com/new-linux-aura-bug.


-- Elliot

Amitav Mohanty

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Mar 12, 2014, 9:41:50 AM3/12/14
to chromi...@chromium.org
You may choose to ignore my question as an unimportant question because of lack of enough background knowledge.

I am curious as to why would you think of creating an entirely new window manager. I am sure you must have analyzed existing window managers apart from GTK+ before coming to the conclusion. A new stack obviously gives you greater control but that would also mean Chromium users on Linux having to use multiple graphics stacks. Initial users will probably be using KDE, GNOME, Awesome, Enlightenment, etc along with Aura stack. If you planned on improving an existing graphics stack, things might move a little slow but the entire community will be benefited. I would like if you could give us more details about the background of the decision. In case, you considered other window managers and found them not powerful enough or lacking features, then I guess detailing those would give the developers of that project direction.

Regards,

Mike Frysinger

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Mar 12, 2014, 9:55:11 AM3/12/14
to amitavm...@gmail.com, chromium-dev
Aura is not a window manager.  Ash is the window manager.

you should browse the docs in the wiki first like here:


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Amitav Mohanty

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Mar 12, 2014, 4:27:07 PM3/12/14
to Mike Frysinger, chromium-dev
Hey Mike

Thanks for clarifying. Well there are cross platform UI toolkits already available like Qt. (I think even EFL runs on windows but I am not very sure.) They might have already been taken into account. However, I did not find any details about them. Please point me to them if they are documented in the docs.

Regards,
Amitav

Mike Frysinger

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Mar 12, 2014, 4:31:38 PM3/12/14
to Amitav Mohanty, chromium-dev
Aura is a lot more than a UI toolkit.  it provides a unified composting layer.  that isn't possible with using just UI toolkits.

not that i was part of the original design/investigation, so someone else will have to comment on the research.
-mike
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Jy W

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May 22, 2014, 2:40:48 PM5/22/14
to chromi...@chromium.org
I see that aura is available on Windows, ChromiumOS and Linux. But is there any updates about when aura will be available on Mac? Thanks.

Nico Weber

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May 22, 2014, 2:52:47 PM5/22/14
to wjy...@gmail.com, Chromium-dev
On Mac, Chrome uses the native widget toolkit (Cocoa). But see "[chromium-dev] PSA: Porting toolkit-views to Mac" from two days ago for ongoing projects in this area.


On Thu, May 22, 2014 at 11:40 AM, Jy W <wjy...@gmail.com> wrote:
I see that aura is available on Windows, ChromiumOS and Linux. But is there any updates about when aura will be available on Mac? Thanks.

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Thiago Farina

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May 22, 2014, 2:53:18 PM5/22/14
to wjy...@gmail.com, Chromium-dev, Trent Apted
On Thu, May 22, 2014 at 3:40 PM, Jy W <wjy...@gmail.com> wrote:
I see that aura is available on Windows, ChromiumOS and Linux. But is there any updates about when aura will be available on Mac?
There is a small team working on this.

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Thiago Farina
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