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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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40 years later, X Window System is far more relevant than anyone could guess (arstechnica.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Wayland kinda is an x.org project in the first place. AFAIK it's officially organised under freedesktop but the core devs are x.org people.

x.org as in the organisation and/or domain might not be needed any more, but the codebase is still maintained by exactly those Wayland devs for the sake of XWayland. Support for X11 clients isn't going to go away any time soon. XWayland is also capable of running in rootfull mode and use X window managers, if there's enough interest to continue the X.org distribution I would expect them to completely rip out the driver stack at some point and switch it over to an off the shelf minimum wayland compositor + XWayland. There's people who are willing to maintain XWayland for compatibility's sake, but all that old driver cruft, no way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Wayland is freedesktop's project and freedesktop is Xorg's project. But you are kinda correct.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Wayland kinda is an x.org project in the first place.

Not really. Wayland is fundamentally different from Xorg. Otherwise we would not need Wayland and create X12. It's like saying mechanical hard drives are kind of Solid State Drives, just because they allow to do something similar. Even if the developers are the same, does not mean the technology is.

AFAIK it’s officially organised under freedesktop but the core devs are x.org people.

I'm not sure if this is correct. But let's assume this is correct. Why does it matter? If Wayland was developed by different people than those who maintain Xorg at the moment, would not change the fact that we need Wayland, because it is different and solves issues that cannot be solved with Xorg without rewriting it. And nobody wants to rewrite Xorg or understand the code (other than very basic security maintenance).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

And nobody wants to rewrite Xorg or understand the code (other than very basic security maintenance).

That's precisely the point: All the devs got tired of it and started wayland instead.

X12 might happen at some point when wayland is mature, as in a "let's create and bless a network-transparent protocol so we might have a chance of getting rid of XWayland in 50 years" kind of move.