New to Wayland development. I have a fresh Debian install (requisite driver is in linux kernel, I hope to one day port it first to FreeBSD then to NetBSD) with no desktop environment. I have a basic understanding of system administration in Linux, and used to be absolutely enamored with it. Less so am I anymore. I am moving to BSD because A) it satisfies my need to do shit in ways that most people in my own culture don’t, and B) I prefer the BSD license to GPL, as it gives you, the programmer, more freedom. Oh yeah, and systemd. Red Hat/IBM can eat a bag of dicks.
My current initiative is to write a fairly simple compositor shell, likely using wlroots, that starts at boot and displays the standard boot messages as if it weren’t there. When it reaches the login screen, I’d like for it to display a background image with an inset terminal emulator. Once you login, the environment will adjust according to a config file found in the users home directory, but still be operated from the inset terminal. It will have a bar where there will be an application menu, current open applications, workspaces (Maybe, I don’t really use them) and notifications. I personally have no need to implement a desktop filing system as I prefer the clean look, but if it develops a userbase who wants that, maybe. I absolutely will not use Qt, and I’d prefer staying away from GTK, although I would like to figure out how to make it compatible with GTK themes. I might rewrite portions of Wayfire (wobbly windows, 3D workspaces) in Vulkan so I don’t have to use whichever license Wayfire uses, while still having access to those effects. I’d like to be able to release it using the BSD license, does Wayland use GPL?
I’m curious; since I have no experience with Wayland development, where should I begin? It’d likely be easiest to start with a session compositor.
