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One of the problems is that X is effectively being deprecated in favor of something that isn't X 2.0: it has different goals, different targets, different ideologies, and not to mention different architecture.

Eg Wayland is unashamedly Linux-centric (mind you, definitely not the same as Linux exclusive), while X most definitely isn't. One was designed to allow for remote rendering, one wasn't. One integrates the window manager functionality and one doesn't. The list of course goes on.




The things you list have not really been true in the real world for a long time. Modern Xorg uses the same Linux exclusive APIs as Wayland, is not network transparent, relies heavily on window manager and compositor features, etc. Modern Xorg and Wayland are more or less conceptually identical. Wayland just replaces the X server with a UNIX socket and has a clean slate for APIs.


1. You're conflating X and Xorg.

2. Network transparency is still there and I use it everyday. The problem is toolkits (GTK and others) who decided it would be 'simpler' to redo everything themselves in a canvas. Of course the result of not taking advantages of X primitives was a massive slowdown over the network.

3. Wayland sits at an odd place, not having the advantages of being a proper protocol in the sense of X (complete abstraction from the substrate), while at the same time not having the advantages of being a direct API to hardware (simplicity, performance).


Or, in another words, Wayland is the same as the modern X, minus the legacy core that couldn't be removed from X because it is not extension (anyone using stippled unaliased lines yet?) and plus sandboxing.




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