Wondering how legacy X apps will look running on Mir, Ubuntu’s next-gen display server?

Well, wonder no more.

In the video below, shared by Ubuntu developers earlier today, we see Mozilla Firefox, GNOME’s erstwhile text-editor Gedit and an impressive test with a popular OpenGL aquarium all running on the Mir display server in a Unity 8 session.

Everything runs amazingly normal which is an amazing technical feat.

The video was filmed by Canonical at a recent developer sprint. The video was distributed internally to better demonstrate the progress made on the X.org compatability layer for Mir.

It has been shared publically to show off how what is arguably the most critical user-facing component of Mir: the ability to run well known apps that aren’t made in toolkits that don’t natively support the new-fangled display server.

We’ve seen countless examples of mobile apps running on Mir in a Unity 8 session as well as a few glimpses of how the Unity 8 will look ‘as a desktop’.

But as ‘neat’ as being able to launch an mobile apps on a desktop is, and as elegant as responsive mobile app design lets some of those apps be, if i’m working desktop-style I’m more likely to want to use proper desktop software, such as Firefox, GIMP and Steam.

Seeing Firefox demoed in the video above, and glimpsing GIMP, XChat and a few other familiar desktop apps in the Apps Scope, is reassuring.