Kevin Gunn has sent his regular report on the new features and under-the-hood improvements that have been implemented in the last couple of months in the Unity8 and Mir projects for Ubuntu Linux.

For those of you who are not in the loop, Unity8 is the next-generation Unity user interface that will be implemented by default in the next major versions of the Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Touch operating systems. Also, Mir is Canonical's next-gen display server for Ubuntu for phones and Ubuntu Desktop Next.

"I've been sending these out on an internal mailing list for a while & trying to be better with public communications, sorry if it may appear without some history for some," says Kevin Gunn in an email to the Ubuntu Touch mailing list.

Among the new features implemented in Unity8, we can mention support for comments, retweets, and posts in Scopes, improved visibility, new downloading animation and wiggling on notification to the launcher, shell rotation, improved AP helpers, as well as various enhancements to the greeter.

Furthermore, multiple improvements have arrived in the switcher component, which will be integrated into the Ubuntu Desktop, a lot of effort has been invested in the new Ubuntu shape in Scope cards, as well as the new icon shapes, and some intensive performance analysis work has been done for the entire project.

Here's what's new in the Mir display server

The Mir display server has received a lot of improvements as well. For example, there are many buffer semantic changes that promise to help nested bypass, a lot of work has been done for exposing multibuffer streams out to the client, and various improvements landed in the server to client area.

Additionally, touch screen detection has been implemented, the mirevent2.0 component has gotten cleaned up, the touch validator has been improved, Mir-on-X (MirX) has received several enhancements and is almost ready for production, and menu support is on its way, along with many other attractive new features.