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X11 vs Wayland

Discussions center on X11's legacy status, its technical shortcomings, compatibility issues, and the transition to Wayland as a modern display server alternative.

➡️ Stable 0.5x Open Source
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#8500
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Top Contributors

DonHopkins (96) bitwize (65) pjmlp (59) yjftsjthsd-h (39) anthk (36)

Keywords

betteros.org SSH GPU F17 E19683 LBX i.e BUT GUI oracle.com x11 server wayland graphics display headless rendering client window ssh

Sample Comments

lelandbatey • Nov 4, 2025 • View on HN

This is also a thing in X, not only Wayland.

colleagueRiley • Nov 23, 2024 • View on HN

X11 needs a real alternative :(

nodata • Oct 1, 2012 • View on HN

(Your title is broken: I assumed "X" referred to the X Window System)

nly • Jul 9, 2021 • View on HN

X11 isn't a GUI framework and is already legacy (Wayland)

gooberman • Dec 25, 2025 • View on HN

What are the things specifically that work better? because most of the case people dont have issues because of the x11 (the protocol), but because of how the xorg server works

jbverschoor • Dec 3, 2022 • View on HN

Ah the good 'ole days of X11

KirinDave • Nov 12, 2012 • View on HN

Doesn't this absolutely freak out X11?

throwawaylinux • Feb 28, 2023 • View on HN

X11 is not usable for everybody without preconditions though.

butterknife • Dec 14, 2023 • View on HN

For a moment I thought you were talking about X11...

fithisux • Mar 2, 2025 • View on HN

Still X11 Is useful as an emulation layer