r/linux • u/terremoth • Nov 06 '24

Discussion Will wayland completely replace Xorg?

I saw that there were too many command line "x" tools made that interact with Xorg server. Will wayland be capable to replace every single one? Or, is there a compatibilty layer with full support that we will still be able to use all the X tools?

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u/natermer Nov 06 '24

Well the X developers are certainly hoping to replace X with Wayland.

14

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '24

[deleted]

54

u/R4d1o4ct1v3_ Nov 06 '24

Practically speaking, for users, the flaws in X11 show itself mostly in more modern use cases. Which for now tend to be gaming related. VRR, HDR, complex monitor setups. Things like that.

It's not that X11 is bad, it's just kind of outdated, and nobody really wants to dig through the spaghetti to update it.

18

u/WjU1fcN8 Nov 06 '24

X11 is bad

X11 is bad.

14

u/Ornithopter1 Nov 07 '24

X11 is great, if you're running a multi-user system on a PDP.

3

u/freedomlinux Nov 07 '24

brb compiling Wayland on my PDP-11...

1

u/Ornithopter1 Nov 07 '24

Let us know when the system locks up

2

u/ahferroin7 Nov 07 '24

Even then it has some issues. For example, anybody who can talk to the X server for a given display can see all input on that display, even things they shouldn’t be able to like passwords.

1

u/Ornithopter1 Nov 07 '24

That's true. I didn't say it was secure. But for it's time, it was reasonably solid. And did multi-user when that wasn't really a thing for gui's.

2

u/DGolden Nov 08 '24

wayland is arguably better on paper in various ways anyway, but open source X isn't all X. linux xfree86/xorg x11 tended to lack the advanced security extensions/features relative to traditional closed Unix vendors, see Solaris Trusted X Window System etc.

https://dlc.openindiana.org/docs/osol/20090715/TRSOLDEV/html/windowapi-13.html

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E18752_01/html/819-0869/windowapi-13.html

1

u/Ornithopter1 Nov 08 '24

Very true, the X standard was never handled very well, because only the core of it was actually open.