In this video (Odysee link), someone asks X11 users why they’re still using it in 2025. The main answers were
- DE or WM doesn’t support Wayland, or its Wayland session is currently WIP.
- [lack of] support for certain graphic tablets and their features.
- old hardware. Specially old nVidia GPUs.
- [If I got this right] Some software expects to be able to dictate window position, and Wayland doesn’t let it to.
- OpenBSD.
In the light of the above, I think GNOME’s decision to drop the X11 backend is a big “meh, who cares”. If you use GNOME you’re likely not in the first case; #2 and #3 boil down to hardware support, not something DE developers can interfere directly; I’m not sure on #4 and #5, however.
old hardware. Specially old nVidia GPUs.
“Fuck you, Nvidia” was in June 2012. People who bought Nvidia hardware after that really have nobody to blame but themselves.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/linus-torvalds-says-f-k-you-to-nvidia/
Idle power on my laptop.
KDE Wayland: 10 watts
KDE X11: 6 wattsIt was this way when I checked years ago. Still this way as of a few weeks ago.
