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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).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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X11 vs Wayland (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 22 hours ago by pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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What's the difference for a real user between using X11 or Wayland nowdays? I haven't found anything useful on the internet, so I'm asking you. Internet articles on the topic (and about WMs too) seem to be advertising slop since they explain anything but the real things. Also, if anyone used the XLibre fork, I would love to hear about your experience with it.

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[–] KianaTabion@lemmy.today 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Fam, if I may, I'll be a bit abrasive and blunt for the sake of brevity. So, without further ado.

Ubuntu 24.04

(I'll assume this is on GNOME.) First of, in terms of Wayland development, that build is from the Bronze Age. The associated issue tracker has been closed since last year, even if you don't like the solution GNOME has come up with. Which, gets us to the second point; please don't blame the Wayland ecosystem as a whole whenever you find a fault within a Wayland compositor. If, instead, you would have been on KDE Plasma back then, you'd have found that PTT was supported. Even if it was basically a hack for the sake of UX. Thankfully, KDE Plasma has recently merged a proper implementation that's slated for its 6.7 release.

I'll grant you that the Wayland ecosystem hasn't fully matured yet. But it's undeniable that it already provides a better experience than its predecessor for the vast majority of users.

[–] rihatsu@lemmy.zip 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Fair points all around. I wasn't thinking about version locks for the LTS releases when I posted, and it looks like I wouldn't have had an issue on GNOME 48.

I think the maturity of the ecosystem has a larger impact on user experience than you're giving it credit for. I understand wayland and the rest of the desktop ecosystem will someday (maybe today for those living on the bleeding edge) provide meaningful benefits over X11 without drawbacks. I'll welcome it when it does, but in the meantime I don't want to deal with troubleshooting my discord keybinds, or figuring out why Spotify has a weird window border. I want my desktop environment to Just Work™. It's immaterial if the fault lies with wayland, GNOME, or Canonical for shipping wayland as a default while GNOME support still needed improvements. The end result is that as a user the only way to easily fix my problem is to use an X11 session instead of wayland, which makes wayland look like the problem.