You open a screenshot tool that worked fine last month, and now it does nothing. Or you share your screen in a video call and everyone sees a black window. Nine times out of ten, the reason is the same: your Linux desktop is now running on the Wayland display server instead of X11.

In this post I’ll show you what Wayland is, how its pieces fit together, how to check which session you’re on, and why I think it’s the right future for Linux graphics.

What is the Wayland display server?

Wayland is a protocol that a compositor uses to talk to its clients, plus a library that implements that protocol. A compositor is the program that draws windows on your screen and handles your keyboard and mouse.

X11 is a full display server that handles both window management and rendering in one big piece. Wayland takes a more modular approach. It keeps the compositor and the clients separate, which gives you a cleaner and more efficient system.

Check whether you’re running Wayland or X11

To see which session type your desktop uses, run:

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

It prints wayland or x11. If you see tty, you’re in a plain text console or an SSH session, so run it from a terminal inside your desktop instead.

To list the apps that are still running through XWayland (the X11 compatibility layer), run:

xlsclients

Anything in that list is an X11 app. If the command isn’t found, install the x11-utils package on Debian or Ubuntu first.

How Wayland’s architecture works

Wayland’s architecture has three parts: the compositor, the clients and the protocols that connect them.

The compositor

The Wayland compositor manages windows, handles input events and composites the final image you see. It’s the central piece that talks to both the apps and the display hardware.

A compositor can be standalone or built into a desktop environment, which makes the setup very flexible. If you want to see a standalone one in action, check out my Arch Linux setup with the Hyprland compositor.

Clients

Wayland clients are the apps and processes that ask the compositor to create surfaces (windows) for them.

On X11, apps go through the X server as a middleman. Wayland clients talk directly to the compositor, so there’s one less hop, which means lower latency and better performance.

Protocols

Wayland uses a set of protocols to define how the compositor and its clients interact. The core protocol covers the basic communication rules. Extra protocols for input, outputs and desktop features build on top of it.

Why Wayland is better than X11

Wayland’s main advantages over X11 are speed, security and better use of modern graphics hardware.

Performance and responsiveness

Wayland performs better than X11 because it drops the overhead of the X server. With less in the way, you get lower latency and smoother interaction between apps and the compositor.

Security

Wayland isolates clients from each other. Each app can only access its own surfaces, so one app can’t snoop on another app’s window or read your keystrokes. That’s also why old screenshot and screen-sharing tools break: they relied on X11 letting any app see everything.

Modern graphics features

Wayland was designed with modern GPUs in mind. It makes better use of hardware-accelerated rendering, so graphics run faster.

Multi-GPU support

Wayland handles multiple GPUs better, letting apps use them more efficiently. That matters most on high-performance workstations and gaming rigs.

Wayland vs X11 at a glance

Here’s how the two compare on the points covered above:

	Wayland	X11
Design	Modular protocol, compositor does the work	One large display server
Path from app to screen	App talks directly to the compositor	App goes through the X server
App isolation	Each app sees only its own surfaces	Apps can see each other’s windows and input
Older apps	Run through XWayland	Run natively

Easier to maintain and extend

Wayland’s leaner, modular architecture makes it easier to maintain, extend and optimize for modern hardware than X11.

Running older X11 apps on Wayland

Wayland’s compatibility has come a long way, but some older X11 apps can still misbehave in a Wayland session. XWayland helps here by running an X11 server inside your Wayland session, so most legacy apps keep working without you doing anything.

Adoption and community support

Wayland adoption has grown steadily, and major desktop environments now support it, with X11 still around as a fallback on many systems. If you’re curious what a recent Ubuntu release ships with, my post on Ubuntu 24.10 Oracular Oriole is a good place to start.

Should you switch to Wayland?

I’d say yes for most people. With its focus on performance, security and modern hardware, Wayland gives you a smoother, more responsive desktop. The move away from X11 takes time, and you might hit the odd app that needs XWayland or a newer version, but the trade is worth it.

The Linux community keeps investing in Wayland, and I expect it to become the go-to display server for distros and desktop environments alike. If something breaks, log out, pick the X11 session on your login screen, and carry on while the app catches up.

Hope this clears things up. Next up, have a look at how I run Hyprland on Arch Linux to see a Wayland desktop in daily use. 🐧