Xfce's Wayland Pivot Under Fire: Experts Question Scope, Demanding Protocol Overhaul
Xfce is actively working on Xfwl4, an effort to build a full Wayland compositor for its desktop environment. The technical migration centers on moving from the established X11 server to the modern Wayland protocol.
Commenters are split on the wisdom of the undertaking. Some support the push, but critics like 'sga' loudly question if Xfce's scope is adequate for building a compositor from scratch, suggesting alternatives such as 'wayfire' or 'cosmic wm'. A core technical demand, issued by 'lordnikon', is that essential features like network transparency must be baked into the Wayland protocol itself, dismissing translation layers like 'waypipe' as insufficient.
The weight of opinion suggests skepticism about the project's immediate feasibility. While the general interest in Wayland is noted, the consensus points to significant architectural gaps. The fault line runs between those who see the necessary migration and those who believe the complexity demands a different, possibly larger-scoped project.
Key Points
Xfce is focusing effort on Xfwl4 to build a Wayland compositor.
This is the stated primary effort, noted by 'jazztickets'.
Xfce may be too small in scope for the compositor effort.
'sga' argues Xfce is too small and suggests 'wayfire' or 'cosmic wm' instead.
Network transparency requires core protocol changes, not wrappers.
'lordnikon' insists that relying on translation layers like 'waypipe' fails to address fundamental protocol needs.
Core usability must function correctly in the new environment.
'swelter_spark' demands that critical features like cut/paste and minimizing applications to the tray work flawlessly.
Development language choice is a known trade-off.
'ProdigalFrog' pointed out the developer preference for Rust over C++ or C, acknowledging it might increase work but satisfy developer enjoyment.
Source Discussions (3)
This report was synthesized from the following Lemmy discussions, ranked by community score.