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Differences between Wayland and X11 (lemmy.ml)

submitted 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I stumbled upon this post regarding an earlier rant about wayland, but now it seems fine, according to the author.

After using Linux for nearly 5 years, using both depending on distros defaults, I have to admit that I never got the core/main/game changing differences between wayland and x11.

To be said, that I also dont do fancy linux things other than basic sysadmin stuff and from time to time repair the mess my curiosity left behind.

Could somebody explain the differences between those two and afterwards maybe also say some words about what this has to do with the difference between window managers and desktop environments?

I am also happy about links to good blog posts or stuff, that target this very questions (as long as the questions make sence of course). Thanks beforehand :)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

In short, X11 is a bit unsecure in its concept (like every program can read keyboard inputs you are doing right now). The multi monitor configuration possibilities and mixing different setups is basically impossible (I mean stuff like mixing 4k@120 Hz with G-Sync and another one with 1080p@60 Hz with just V-Sync). X11 or XOrg has a long history since the 80s with many versions, the code base is spaghetti code and its not a pleasure for developers to work on.

Wayland is new, with a fresh and modern code base. It eliminates the security and monitor issues. Programs not written for Wayland does not work, but luckily there is XWayland, which allows running X11 games on Wayland. You can think of like Proton for X11, but without the benefits of Wayland, just a compatibility mode. In Wayland there are sub protocols, meaning standard definitions, that are developed and added after some time passes. I personally think protocols being like an addon that allows doing more stuff in a standardized way across all systems that support it. Developers in Wayland have a much better time working with its modern code base.

Have a look at https://wayland.freedesktop.org/docs/html/ch03.html .