undefined | Better HN

0 pointsarp2421y ago0 comments

Tons of X11 infra will have to remain for a long time to support X11-only "legacy" apps that can't easily be updated. There's a long tail of that from games to scientific software to just unmaintained software that still works and is used.

The major bit will be when and if toolkits like GTK, Qt, SDL, etc. drop X11 support and applications update to X11-less versions. AFAIK there are no plans for that and is still years away (there was some talk about GTK 5, but nothing firm and no one even started work on GTK 5).

I also think Wayland will eventually replace all of X11, in the same way as IPv6 will eventually replace all of IPv4.

0 comments

cies1y ago

> Tons of X11 infra will have to remain

As XWayland. XWayland will be the new X.

arp242OP1y ago

Well, also libX11 and all of that type of stuff. And as I understand it XWayland shares a lot of code with the regular xserver (it's built from the same repo).

cies1y ago

Yes, it just sits in a Wayland "container". So we can have security/fractionalScaling/modernMultiMonitor by default and X.oldness when required for that last bit of stubborn software.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsarp2421y ago0 comments

I also think Wayland will eventually replace all of X11, in the same way as IPv6 will eventually replace all of IPv4.

0 comments

cies1y ago

> Tons of X11 infra will have to remain

As XWayland. XWayland will be the new X.

arp242OP1y ago

Well, also libX11 and all of that type of stuff. And as I understand it XWayland shares a lot of code with the regular xserver (it's built from the same repo).

cies1y ago

Yes, it just sits in a Wayland "container". So we can have security/fractionalScaling/modernMultiMonitor by default and X.oldness when required for that last bit of stubborn software.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse