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Sway-1.0-released.md (5306B)

    

  1. ---
  2. date: 2019-03-11
  3. layout: post
  4. title: Announcing the release of sway 1.0
  5. tags: ["wayland", "sway", "announcement"]
  6. ---
  8. 1,315 days after I started the [sway](https://swaywm.org) project, it's finally
  9. time for [sway 1.0](https://github.com/swaywm/sway/releases/tag/1.0)! I had no
  10. idea at the time how much work I was in for, or how many talented people would
  11. join and support the project with me. In order to complete this project, we have
  12. had to rewrite the entire Linux desktop nearly from scratch. Nearly 300 people
  13. worked together, together writing over 9,000 commits and almost 100,000 lines of
  14. code, to bring you this release.
  16. <small class="text-muted">Sway is an i3-compatible Wayland desktop for Linux and FreeBSD</small>
  18. 1.0 is the first stable release of sway and represents a consistent, flexible,
  19. and powerful desktop environment for Linux and FreeBSD. We hope you'll enjoy it!
  20. If the last sway release you used was 0.15 or earlier, you're in for a shock.
  21. 0.15 was a buggy, frustrating desktop to use, but sway 1.0 has been completely
  22. overhauled and represents a much more capable desktop. It's almost impossible to
  23. summarize all of the changes which makes 1.0 great. Sway 1.0 adds a huge variety
  24. of features which were sorely missed on 0.x, improves performance in every
  25. respect, offers a more faithful implementation of Wayland, and exists as a
  26. positive political force in the Wayland ecosystem pushing for standardization
  27. and cooperation among Wayland projects.
  29. When planning the future of sway, we realized that the Wayland ecosystem was
  30. sorely in need of a stable & flexible common base library to encapsulate all of
  31. the difficult and complex facets of building a desktop. To this end, I decided
  32. we would build [wlroots](https://github.com/swaywm/wlroots). It's been a
  33. smashing success. This project has become very important to the Linux desktop
  34. ecosystem, and the benefits we reap from it have been shared with the community
  35. at large. [Dozens of projects][project-list] are using it today, and soon you'll
  36. find it underneath most Linux desktops, on your phone, in your VR environment,
  37. and more. Its influence extends beyond its borders as well, as we develop and
  38. push for standards throughout Wayland.
  40. [project-list]: https://github.com/swaywm/wlroots/wiki/Projects-which-use-wlroots
  42. Through this work we have also helped to build a broader ecosystem of tools
  43. built on interoperable standards which you may find useful in your new sway 1.0
  44. desktop. Here are a few of my favorites - each of which is compatible with many
  45. Wayland compositors:
  47. - [swayidle](https://github.com/swaywm/swayidle): idle management daemon
  48. - [swaylock](https://github.com/swaywm/swaylock): lock screen
  49. - [mako](https://github.com/emersion/mako): notification daemon
  50. - [grim](https://github.com/emersion/grim): screenshot tool
  51. - [slurp](https://github.com/emersion/slurp): interactive region selection
  52. - [wf-recorder](https://github.com/ammen99/wf-recorder): video capture tool
  53. - [waybar](https://github.com/Alexays/Waybar): alternative panel
  54. - [virtboard](https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/virtboard): on-screen keyboard
  55. - [wl-clipboard](https://github.com/bugaevc/wl-clipboard): xclip replacement
  56. - [wallutils](https://github.com/xyproto/wallutils): fancy wallpaper manager
  58. ---
  60. None of this would be possible without the support of sway's and wlroots'
  61. talented contributors. Hundreds of people worked together on this. I'd like to
  62. give special thanks to our core contributors: Brian Ashworth, Ian Fan, Ryan
  63. Dwyer, Scott Anderson, and Simon Ser. Thanks are also in order for those who
  64. have helped wlroots fit into the broader ecosystem - thanks to Purism for their
  65. help on wlroots, KDE & Canonical for their help on protocol standardization. I
  66. also owe thanks to all of the other projects which use wlroots, particularly
  67. including Way Cooler, Wayfire, and Waymonad, who all have made substantial
  68. contributions to wlroots in their pursit of the best Wayland desktop.
  70. I'd also of course like to thank all of the users who have donated to support
  71. my work, which I now do full-time, which has had and I hope will continue to
  72. have a positive impact on the project and those around it. Please consider
  73. [donating](https://drewdevault.com/donate) to support the future of sway &
  74. wlroots if you haven't yet.
  76. Though sway today is already stable and powerful, we're not done yet. We plan to
  77. continue improving performance & stability, adding useful desktop features,
  78. taking advantage of better hardware, and bringing sway to more users. Here's
  79. some of what we have planned for future releases:
  81. - Better Wayland-native tools for internationalized input methods like CJK
  82. - Better accessibility tools including improved screen reader support,
  83.   high-contrast mode, a magnifying glass tool, and so on
  84. - Integration with xdg-portal & pipewire for interoperable screen capture
  85. - Improved touch screen support for use on the [Librem
  86.   5](https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/) and on
  87.   [postmarketOS](https://postmarketos.org/)
  88. - Better support for drawing tablets and additional hardware
  89. - Sandboxing and security features
  91. As with all sway features, we intend to have the best-in-class implementations
  92. of these features and set the bar as high as we can for everyone else. We're
  93. looking forward to your continued support!