Ubuntu adopts LightDM, login screens to get more exciting..

‘LightDM‘ will replace the standard ‘GDM’ login experience for Ubuntu 11.10, based on a decision taken today at the Ubuntu Developer Summit.

Why?
With Ubuntu 11.10 requiring a slick, ‘consumer orientated’ login experience that better matches the rest of Ubuntu, the decision to switch to ‘LightDM’ proved the ideal solution.
LightDM is promoted as fast, small, well documented, is easily themable and has ‘great accessibility’. A 3D-based interface will greet those with capable hardware, with a 2D version being used fallback where not supported.
Login screens are something that often get overlooked on a machine because at most we spend a few seconds every day staring at them. But they are important not only because of the security they offer, but because of the loading time they can add to a system boot.
Canonical has decided it is going to change the login manager it uses for Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) from the Gnome Display Manager (GDM) to the Light Display Manager (LightDM). This is a significant change for two reasons. The first is one of size, and as the name implies LightDM is much more lightweight than GDM. While GDM consists of around 50,000 lines of code, LightDM only has 5,000 for effectively doing the same job. LightDM is meant to be very fast meaning it could have a positive impact on boot times.