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The real story behind Wayland and X

Linux.conf.au 2013 -- Canberra, Australia · 46.4K views · 2014-11-23 · 45:35

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Overview

X.Org developer Daniel Stone explains the history and technical limits of the X Window System and why Wayland was created, debunking myths from forum comments. He covers topics such as network transparency and blocking calls.

On Hacker News

HN uses it as the go-to answer to claims that Wayland is unnecessary, from a developer who knew X's codebase well.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2018–2024

Topics

Linux & open-source ecosystemsComputer graphics & renderingOperating systems & kernels
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waylandx11linux graphicsdisplay serversdaniel stone

What people said

sergeykish · 2020-10 · Strong recommendation

This criticism looks like "free as beer and I know better". 1. The old, mostly working thing waits your commit 2. That new thing can have some help too I recommend developers story about this "mostly working thing" (2014) [1]. It is quite fun and eye opening, he clearly knows his subject better than most of the comments. Wayland demo worked almost from day one. I've run it in 2010 [2]. But we need applications, that is migrating toolkits and this took 10 years. It is very toxic development culture, cancel culture, mob. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]

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SXX · 2020-08 · Strong recommendation

Really recommend that speech as well since it's give good understanding what's wrong with X11 and why Wayland was created. The real story behind Wayland and X: [VIDEO]

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vetinari · 2023-02 · Recommendation

> I've seen commentary from people who have worked intimately on both protocols and implementations of both who consider Wayland to have the better architecture. For those interested in details: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Linux.conf.au 2013 -- Canberra, Australia, played through YouTube.

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