The new display servers
The good old X Window System consists of an X server that receives events from input devices and draws the graphics on the screen. On top of this system is a compositor, which records the positions of Windows and adds novel graphical effects as needed (Figure 1). Desktop environments add a window manager that decorates every window with a frame.
All of these components need to communicate through a time-consuming process. The cumbersome structure and outdated complexity of the X system bothered programmer Kristian H¯gsberg, so he designed an alternative back in 2008, which he dubbed Wayland [1]. H¯gsberg kept to the core functions that a display system currently needs to provide on Linux. He also set out to design Wayland so that it would avoid tearing, lag, flicker, and unnecessary redrawing of modified screen areas [2].
The result was a surprisingly sleek and efficient system. Media reports increasingly attracted the attention of supporters to H¯gsberg's new display server architecture.
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