Aethercast Developing Open Source Display Streaming for Ubuntu

Streaming video to monitors and TVs from Ubuntu mobile devices via Miracast is set to become one of the open source operating system’s new features, further blurring the lines between the GNU/Linux experience and proprietary operating systems.

The support is being implemented through a project called Aethercast. Its developers describe it as a “display casting management service.” That means it will be able to display information from one device on another one wirelessly.

Aethercast is based on Miracast, a protocol for wireless data streaming that is supported by a growing number of hardware devices.

This is not the first attempt to implement Miracast support for Linux-based devices. OpenWFD, among other initiatives, was doing that more than two years ago.

But so far, Miracast support in the open source ecosystem has seen virtually no real-world use. Aethercast could help change that, especially because it has the solid backing of Ubuntu developers. That makes it different from similar open source projects.

Aethercast is also important because it will provide another key feature for Ubuntu-based mobile phones. By allowing users to stream displays easily from any device running Ubuntu to a TV or monitor of their choice, Aethercast will make the Ubuntu user experience similar in another respect that is vital for bringing open source operating systems to the masses. It will also help to advance Ubuntu “convergence,” which has been Canonical’s primary focus for the last several years.