The X Window Server has been serving Linux users faithfully for the better part of a decade. And Ubuntu has been using the standard-issue display server to push its GUI to monitors across the globe since its color scheme was more sludge than slick. Canonical originally planned to replace the aging X with another display server called Wayland, but the developers apparently couldn't bend the compositing-friendly protocol to their cross-device whims. So, Mir was created. Th