this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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A set of merge requests were opened that would effectively drop X.Org (X11) session support for the GNOME desktop and once that code is removed making it a Wayland-only desktop environment.

Going along with Fedora 40 looking to disable the GNOME X11 session support (and also making KDE Plasma 6 Wayland-only for Fedora), upstream GNOME is evaluating the prospect of disabling and then removing their X11 session support.

Some concerns were raised already how this could impact downstream desktops like Budgie and Pantheon that haven't yet fully transitioned over to Wayland. In any event we'll see where the discussions lead but it's sure looking like 2024 will be the year that GNOME goes Wayland-only.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, there are better reasons for getting rid of fossil software... Like xorg being a giant clusterhack :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Still not convinced Wayland won't end up the side-line fossil to be perfectly frank. It just isn't compatible enough considering how long it has been developed and the "every compositor needs to essentially implement the whole protocol itself" model seems like a huge design flaw.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

the “every compositor needs to essentially implement the whole protocol itself” model seems like a huge design flaw.

It's amazing that wayland have been developed for so long (even though work on the desktop ecosystem is more recent) and this misconception still exists, lemmy need to try to do something to solve Brandolini's law .

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, it would certainly help if you explained in what way that is a misconception. I mean obviously they can share part of the implementation via libraries but where else do you see that as a misconception?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Because X11 works the EXACT SAME WAY

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

every compositor needs to essentially implement the whole protocol itself

This is also how X11 works if you choose not to use x.org... wayland is a protocol, the equivalent you're looking for is wlroots.

If you use wlroots, you don't have to do any of that.

As for why kde/wlroots/gnome are separate... x.org used to have multiple implementations too, until one took over and became used everywhere. Wlroots is the equivalent to x.org, and shares many implementation details with kde, gnome is the only odd one out, and both kde and gnomes implementations only exist because they came before wlroots.