this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025

92 points (97.9% liked)

Linux

56005 readers

941 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Wayback: A Wayland replacement for the whole X11 server (www.theregister.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

all 16 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank god. Now if all goes well people can stop talking about that really buggy and awful fork.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

what fork?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

XLibre. This article seems to explain it well i think, https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/10/xlibre_new_xorg_fork

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

oh i remember this. it was that guy who thought he could fix xorg by himself, and ended up breaking it further. then accused gnome of being "dei" when they kicked him out lol

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I am trying to understand the difference between Wayback and running Xwayland in Cage.

I’m Wayback, will I still be able to run Wayland applications? Or am I literally just running an Xserver that uses Wayland for the DDX layer?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Cage is designed around running a single maximized application. Wayback is meant to run an entire x11 desktop environment.

Not sure about the second part.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is exciting news, would love to be able to go back to using my beloved awesomewm without ditching wayland

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I think you effectively would be ditching Wayland though as I do not think you can run Wayland applications.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wonder if i will continue to use Regular Wayland rather then Wayback if it goes stable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well, if you use Wayback, I am not sure you can use Wayland applications. Hoping somebody can confirm or deny this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago

[+] [email protected] -6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Man, we really need to make "The ~~Church~~ Cathedral and the Bazaar" required reading.

You clearly have missed the entire point of Linux, which is the freedom to do with your machine as you like. The endless number of choices for specific tastes is the result of people having the choice to write their own thing.

When consolidation happens, when people say "make my choice for me, I can't make decisions" we end up with super constrained setups like MacOS, Windows 11 and stupid Gnome the way it is now; no choice, do it our way or not at all.

And the answer is still freedom. It's obvious in the plugins and addons for gnome that get it to do basic customizing you find in, say xfce as a toggle in the settings. You find it in the myriad of softwares written for windows and mac that let the user do what they want to do.

And I will likely not be the first to point out to you Linux doesn't "aim for desktops", linux isn't an organization the way ms and apple are. And it likely never will be.

Newbies will be scared and confused no matter what's in front of them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Not to correct you but, if people try to search based on your recommendation, it is “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Oh, dammit. Thank you.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Why do I feel like narrowing down the options would not be that bad?

Perhaps because you miss Microsoft or Apple? In a rather misdirected way?

Half the point is there are multiple ways to do things - and mind, Windows is like that too (you can get to some settings though the new Control Panel, the old Control Panel, the Regedit, the Powershell...). Just about the only thing in Windows you are forced only one vision of is the desktop itself, but as soon as you double-click an icon, all bets are off.

Also if what you want is getting behind "tried and tested, universally accepted technologies"... that's what sysvinit, ALSA, X11 and automake / build-essentials; no need for systemd, Pulseaudio, Wayland and Snaps. Pulseaudio was basically a stillborn deformed baby whereas I've never seen ALSA fail since 2002 (to the point even today I have to "fix" Flatpak not having audio on Pipewire unless Pulseaudio sits behind it by just seating both of them behind ALSA). I don't even have to begin on Wayland, it started as just vaporware; Systemd is largely an attempt to microsoft-ize Linux system management; and Snaps make me want to snap.

As for newbies... others have addressed the point but honestly, if someone gets scared and whiny at the "choose your starter" screen of the game, they're not gonna last any in a Pokémon game nor would I want them around whining about things they couldn't even be bothered to be here for.