Linux

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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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The cost of maintaining Xorg (mastodon.social)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago

10 years was enough time to make your software work on Wayland.

By that logic, one could answer that 15 years was enough time to make Wayland work better than it does... but that would be petty and disingenous.

Desktop stacks are very complex. X.org took 30 years to beat that complexity into a usable shape. Wayland pushed most complexity up the stack and still took 15 years to finally put together a protocol of beta quality.

It will take the rest of the stack however long it will take to build on that protocol. Most of the Linux community are volunteers, and Wayland was and still is work in progress. Nobody in their right mind rushes to write software on top of an unstable protocol.

If Wayland is truly ready I think we will see meaningful stack adoption within the next 5 years. But I don't think trying to force developers into it will achieve anything.

As for forcing users that's completely unreasonable. If you're using XFCE on Nvidia you'll have to wait for XFCE to get Wayland support and for Wayland to get Nvidia support. Very few people are willing to change their whole desktop stack or able to buy a new graphics card for the sake of... of what? Bringing about the Year of the Linux Desktop?