Wayland display server protocol
Changing of the Guard
© Lead Image © Maddalena Delli, 123RF.com
The X11 graphics protocol is showing some serious signs of age, but Wayland is poised to come to the rescue.
The X Window System has provided a framework for desktop graphics in Unix and Linux for more than 30 years. X has gone through many phases since it first appeared in 1984, but it stabilized long ago. Version 11 of the X protocol (referred to as X11) has been around since 1987, and it is a fundamental part of the Linux landscape; however, computers have changed a lot since 1987, and many experts believe the X Window System needs to be replaced.
The Wayland display server protocol, developed since 2008 under the direction of Intel employee Kristian Høgsberg, is primed to take over for X11. Wayland could eventually solve a load of problems that developers have to contend with when integrating Linux applications with a graphic desktop, but is Wayland equal to the task? This article looks at the state of Wayland integration.
The Turning Point
X11 is a patchwork of code difficult to maintain and almost impossible to expand. Serious mistakes often emerge that have remained hidden in the code for years. For example, a security vulnerability in the font server dating from 1991 wasn't discovered until 2014 [1]. Rigorously practiced backward compatibility is also part of the reason X11 is not considered secure. Several of the core components carried over from the early days are no longer of any real use, but they have to be available by default.
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