What Is Wayland Cooking?

Summary

In 2025, Wayland has gained significant traction over X11, becoming the default graphical session in the Linux world. This shift addresses many of X11's long-standing issues, such as performance overhead, security flaws, and lack of high-DPI support. Wayland's monolithic design improves performance, security, and privacy, although it introduces fragmentation challenges. New features like fractional scaling and HDR support are closing gaps with X11, while gaming compatibility through Wine and improvements in video rendering signal a promising future. Despite some initial setbacks, Wayland is now seen as the next-gen solution for Linux desktops, with major desktop environments making it the default.

Takeaways

• 😀 Wayland is rapidly gaining adoption in 2025, replacing X11 as the default graphical session on Linux desktops.
• 😀 The transition from X11 to Wayland had been slow due to the lack of feature parity, but recent advancements are helping it gain traction.
• 😀 X11, or X.Org, was an open-source implementation of the X Window System, which used a client-server architecture for managing windows and input devices.
• 😀 X11 had numerous issues, including high latency, screen tearing, lack of high-DPI support, security vulnerabilities, and poor maintenance.
• 😀 Wayland addresses many of X11's flaws by using a monolithic architecture, integrating the display server, window manager, and compositor into one component.
• 😀 One of the major improvements in Wayland is the elimination of network protocol overhead, resulting in better performance and lower latency.
• 😀 Wayland clients are more restricted than X11 clients, but this design enhances security by reducing the risks of malicious actions like screen recording or keylogging.
• 😀 Wayland's main challenge is fragmentation, as different compositors implement different sets of protocols, leading to inconsistent feature support.
• 😀 Recent advancements in Wayland include the Fractional Scaling Version 1 protocol, which allows better support for high-DPI displays without visual artifacts.
• 😀 The introduction of the 'Tearing Control Version 1' protocol aims to improve performance in fast-paced games by allowing users to disable vertical synchronization (vsync).
• 😀 Color management and HDR support have long been issues for Wayland and Linux desktops in general, but recent developments in Wayland's color management protocol show promising progress.
• 😀 The wine program now includes experimental Wayland support, allowing Windows applications to run on Wayland systems, signaling the possibility of native Wayland gaming in the future.
• 😀 Desktop environments like Plasma and GNOME have increasingly adopted Wayland as the default session, with X11 being phased out in favor of Wayland in upcoming releases.

Q & A

What is the main reason Linux users were hesitant to switch from X11 to Wayland initially?

The main reason for hesitation was that Wayland compositors didn't offer the same level of feature parity as the X11 server. For a long time, users couldn't fully leave X11 because Wayland didn't yet meet all the functional needs of users, especially in areas like gaming and multi-monitor support.

How does the X11 (X.org) system function in terms of its architecture?

X11 uses a client-server architecture where the X server handles communication with the display hardware and manages the graphical environment, while the applications act as clients interacting with the server. This setup was originally designed to support remote server connections with thin client machines.

What are some of the performance issues caused by X11 that led to its decline?

X11's networked architecture introduced performance overhead, even for local sessions. It also caused latency issues, especially when a compositor was running, and suffered from screen tearing and high DPI limitations, which made it unsuitable for modern hardware and needs.

What major design flaw in X11 affected its handling of multiple monitors with different DPIs?

X11 treated all connected displays as a single surface, making it impossible to apply individual DPI scaling per monitor. This caused problems when using displays with different resolutions and refresh rates, resulting in poor user experience with high DPI and mixed-DPI setups.

What security issues did X11 face compared to Wayland?

X11 had serious security flaws, as clients could potentially access sensitive information from the entire X server. This allowed malicious applications to take control of input devices, record keystrokes, take screenshots, or even control the entire server, making it highly insecure.

How does Wayland differ from X11 in terms of its architecture?

Wayland moves away from the client-server model of X11. Instead, it integrates the display server, window manager, and compositor into a single monolithic component called the Wayland compositor. This results in improved performance and lower latency, as there is no need for intermediary communication between components.

What is one of the key advantages of Wayland over X11 in terms of performance?

Wayland offers a significant performance boost due to its monolithic architecture, which eliminates the need for the network protocol that X11 used, thus reducing overhead and improving latency and responsiveness, especially for tasks like gaming.

What is a major disadvantage of Wayland's monolithic architecture?

A major disadvantage of Wayland's monolithic design is fragmentation. Different compositors need to be developed for each desktop environment, and not all Wayland compositors implement the same set of protocols. This can lead to inconsistency and compatibility issues across the ecosystem.

What feature in Wayland helps solve the problem of fractional scaling that was difficult in X11?

Wayland introduced the fractional scaling protocol, which allows clients to define their own scaling level and handle it internally. This eliminates the computational cost and visual artifacts that arose from integer scaling in X11, leading to clearer and sharper visuals on high-DPI displays.

How is the issue of screen tearing addressed in Wayland, and what is its impact on gaming?

Wayland enforces vertical synchronization (vsync) to eliminate screen tearing, ensuring each frame is perfectly rendered. However, this can introduce input latency, which negatively impacts fast-paced gaming. To address this, the Wayland protocol is working on a solution that would allow clients to disable vsync for specific applications, but this feature is still being developed.