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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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How Wayland handles security considerations vs MacOS Quartz or Windows DWM? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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As I understand it, X11 has many inherent security concerns, including programs being able to read the contents of other windows and intercept keystrokes. Wayland addresses these concerns but at the moment breaks certain functions like screen readers, cursor warping, and the ability of a program to resize its own window.

I am curious as to how the display protocols of MacOS and Windows handle these situations differently. How does a program in those operating systems gain permission to read the contents of other windows, if at all? What is to be done in Wayland for these functions to be more seamless or are there inherent obstacles?

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not sure if Windows has that but I believe on macOS what happens is the app tries to record the screen, and if it fails macOS blocks the request and opens the security settings to enable the permission, and you have restart the whole application for the permission to take.

What's done for Wayland is the portal system: applications can use portals to request access to specific things like screen recording, the DE does what it needs to do and it starts feeding the data to the application through the portal. It's working fairly well, I haven't had issues with those in a while. The application just requests what it wants, and the DE prompts the user (or auto accept the request) optionally remembering the choice as well.

Generally the solution for X11 problems is to implement a modern API for it in either Wayland or as a portal. Which breaks old stuff, but once updated it works fine.

The main obstacle is getting Gnome to agree to the protocols.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

except the portal keeps popping up whenever I touch my controller, and the remember option does not work. It pops up in the foreground anytime I even accidentallytouch my contoller's touchpad. In home streaming is basically impossible for me rn.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

That's not really a Wayland thing, that's an (apparently badly implemented) attempt to bridge X11 apps to a permission system they were never written for.