Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)

Right now, I'm seeing between 80% and 93% usage of X in favor of Wayland, depending on which source I'm reading. I'd like to see Wayland get more traction, but I'm also aware that many of the things that make it appealing directly cut into its usability due to the many tools and hacks that rely on X's inherent security holes. How long does HN think it will take Wayland to pass the 50% mark in terms of usage across the Linux ecosystem?

Comments (17)

rbanffy · 3h ago

For me, it's the default and, therefore, the one I use. I miss xkill, but that's about it. The other day I was a bit annoyed when I ssh'd into my other laptop downstairs and an app I started there (don't remember what) started there instead of forwarding the window to my desktop. This is the feature I miss the most, and I'm sure it'll eventually get there.

beanjuiceII · 3h ago

I'd say when wayland decides to take users needs more seriously

Vilian · 2h ago

Hardware survey shows more than 50% wayland usage a few months ago, it harder to have a correct survey, how much of those 80% is just legacy systems that don't update anymore, or don't matter?, like a car dashboard, it uses x11 but noone would count it, or make applications for it, the correctly measure is limiting it to desktop use, and places where update and new applications care about

JohnFen · 3h ago

I have no idea. I continue to use X intentionally, because I use some features it has that Wayland doesn't replicate.

ferguess_k · 3h ago

Stupid question (I'm a hobbyist Linux programmer): When do people use X and Wayland instead of an UI framework such as QT?

I guess it's obvious that people who create and maintain QT and other GUI libraries definitely use X/Wayland directly, is there anything else?

JohnFen · 3h ago

By "use", I mean it's the windowing subsystem on my desktops. I don't use it as a GUI library. I tend to use QT for that.

ferguess_k · 3h ago

Oh I see, thanks. Guess I mixed up the concepts.

dcminter · 3h ago

Ubuntu's default is Wayland, so I'm surprised that doesn't sway things more - I thought Ubuntu had about ⅓ of the market for Linux desktops.

hollerith · 3h ago

Fedora's default is Wayland, too, and has been for at least 4 years. Ditto NixOS.

I think OP is mistaken and that most Linux installs use Wayland rather than an X server.

Rooster61 · 3h ago

Possibly, but most every source on the matter that I find seems to think it's quite low, and I think that tracks. Folks start off on Wayland, hit a snag installing insert_your_application_here, google and find that Wayland doesn't support XYZ due to design, and switch over to X11. It's pretty trivial to switch for most distros

hollerith · 3h ago

By "sources" do you mean comments on forums like this one?

Rooster61 · 3h ago

Indeed. Most of them probably anecdotal and possibly flat out wrong. That said, I couldn't find a truly authoritative source and there does seem to be a preponderance of anecdotal posts across search results indicating that X11 does indeed have the bear share

neilsimp1 · 2h ago

Where is your source for 80-90% using X11?

My assumption would be that by now, it would be 80+% on Wayland.

brudgers · 3h ago

I'd like to see Wayland get more traction

That’s the problem with Wayland.

What you like, is not an engineering criterion.

Wayland breaks my working system.

That is a good definition of badly engineered.

If you want adoption, cowboy up and make it backward compatible.

Good luck.

Rooster61 · 3h ago

This seems...oddly passive aggressive. I actually have no skin in the game. I simply posted out of curiosity. I do worry that as Linux becomes more popular due to Windows fuckery, there will be an increase in malware that preys on X11's security flaws, but I am perfectly happy using X11.

> That is a good definition of badly engineered.

One could argue that the hacks and whatnot that apps use to do what they do on X are based on poor engineering. Security certainly is an engineering criterion.

brudgers · 1h ago

Wanting other people to use Wayland for their own good assumes that they are not smart enough to make an informed decisions.

People use Windows in part because they don’t have to deal with “I want people to use Wayland” mentality. It is developed by adults capable of making adult decisions to do the hard things. Not by ideology.

Planned obsolescences are bad, unplanned obsolescences are worse. Wayland is avoided on merit. It is a bad design because it breaks existing systems.

The Wayland developers decided to destroy the Linux ecosystem for ideology.

nobody9999 · 3h ago

I use XFCE[0] which doesn't have full Wayland support[1]...yet.

I'm not opposed to using Wayland, but I am a dedicated XFCE user. As such, I won't move to Wayland until XFCE fully supports it.

And once it does, I assume my preferred distro (Fedora[2]) will make Wayland the default for XFCE (as it already does for Gnome and KDE).

[0] https://xfce.org/

[1] https://wiki.xfce.org/releng/wayland_roadmap

[2] https://news.itsfoss.com/fedora-41-gnome-wayland/

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Comments (17)

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