I'm trying to understand why some Linux users continue to run X11—or projects such as XLibre—instead of switching to Wayland. Is it mainly because of compatibility, desktop environment support, hardware issues, or specific features that Wayland still doesn't provide?
4 Answers
Wayland is generally the direction desktop Linux is moving, and major environments have increasingly focused on it. Still, the transition happened gradually, so distributions and smaller desktop projects have not all reached the same level of support. Some users also simply prefer the behavior of their existing X11 setup and don’t want to change it until there is a clear benefit.
X11 is old, mature, and extremely well tested. That doesn’t make it the best choice for everyone—it lacks many modern security and display features—but it can still be the most predictable option for a particular setup. Wayland compatibility layers can run many X11 applications, but they don’t guarantee that every old application, window manager, input tool, or unusual workflow will behave exactly the same.
XLibre is a separate X11-based project, so the reasons for using it are narrower. Someone might want an actively maintained X server branch or specific X11 compatibility, but whether it is stable enough depends on the release and hardware. Claims that it is clearly better or worse are best evaluated by checking its current bug reports and testing it on the actual system rather than treating the surrounding controversy as technical evidence.
For most users, there probably isn’t a compelling reason to seek it out. If Wayland works well, it is the more future-facing choice; if it doesn’t, standard X11 may already solve the compatibility problem.
The biggest practical reasons are compatibility and desktop support. Some window managers, applications, tools, and older hardware still work better with X11. Desktop environments such as Xfce, Cinnamon, and MATE are also still developing or improving their Wayland sessions, so users may stay on X11 until those are ready.
Xfce does have Wayland work underway, but it isn’t a complete one-to-one replacement yet. Some features and workflows still need time to catch up.
That’s the key distinction: X11 is usually retained because something depends on it, not because it is the forward-looking option.