Hello Linux Geeksters. As a reminder, Canonical has been working a lot at Mir, their own display server, which is intended to be an alternative to the good old X.org server. While it is implemented by default on Ubuntu Touch, Mir will land in the desktop versions of Ubuntu, starting with Ubuntu 14.10.
Canonical has officially announced that Ubuntu 14.10 will be released with Mir as default, and most probably will be using Unity 8.
This is what Oliver Ries, an Ubuntu developer has said in the mailing lists:
Going forward we are expecting to see Mir being part of the default display stack in 14.10 and following releases, where the key focus is to bring the vision of convergence to our users.
The initial plan was to integrate Mir and Unity 8 in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, but for performance reasons, the idea has been postponed. Mark Shuttlerworth’s big dream is to reach a full mobile-desktop convergence, in order to enable the users to connect a screen and a keyboard to their Ubuntu-based smartphone and get all the features of a computer.
To my mind, Canonical wants to get the first step in the convergence process, with the arrival of Ubuntu 14.10. They already intend to port some Ubuntu Touch apps for the Ubuntu desktop and include them in Ubuntu 14.10.