GNOME has fully removed X11 support from its Mutter compositor, committing to a Wayland-only future for the Linux desktop. This change, announced on November 5, 2025, follows years of preparation and aims to enhance security and performance. The move impacts major distributions and sparks community debate over accessibility.
The transition to Wayland in GNOME marks a significant evolution in Linux display protocols. On November 5, 2025, developers integrated a merge request that "completely drops the whole X11 backend" from Mutter, GNOME's window manager and compositor. This renders GNOME strictly Wayland-based, eliminating all associated X11 code to streamline maintenance.
GNOME's phased approach began with GNOME 49, released earlier in 2025, where X11 support was disabled by default but kept for compatibility. A release candidate briefly restored X11 sessions in the GNOME Display Manager (GDM) to address feedback. By September 2025, X11 was re-enabled in GDM for GNOME 49, considering hardware issues and needs of other environments like KDE Plasma or XFCE. Full removal is set for GNOME 50 in 2026.
Lead developer Jonas Ådahl noted in commit messages that the purge simplifies architecture and allows focus on Wayland features, including better variable refresh rate support and explicit sync protocols. Wayland offers superior security, such as per-window input isolation, and improved performance on modern hardware compared to X11, which originated in 1984 and struggles with vulnerabilities, multi-monitor setups, and high-resolution displays.
Downstream distributions have adapted quickly. Ubuntu 25.10 dropped X11 for Wayland-only GNOME sessions, promising smoother graphics but challenging users of X11-specific apps. Fedora 43 deprecated X11 upstream, highlighting benefits like enhanced touch support and reduced latency, though noting potential accessibility regressions.
Community reactions are mixed. Social media posts express frustration over lost functionality and accessibility concerns, with X11's network transparency and mature tools for screen readers surpassing Wayland's current state. Discussions on Reddit and forums debate workarounds via XWayland bridges. Advocates worry about parity taking years, while supporters view it as necessary progress. Alternatives, including forks, are emerging to preserve X11 options.