{"slug": "x11libre", "name": "X11Libre", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 5, "warners": 1, "score": 2.78, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2025-11-22", "latest": "2026-08-20", "why": "So I am glad to see the momentum, the cleanups, and most of all, the continued dedication", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "So I am glad to see the momentum, the cleanups, and most of all, the continued dedication", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/x11libre/xserver", "official_url": "https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["X11Libre", "Xlibre", "XLibre"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 789951280, "item_id": 49371955, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49371955", "by": "sertraline", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Xlibre brought XNamespaces -- as well as HDR and seat management", "excerpt": "Yep, it is important to remember Metux was a sole guy supporting Xorg for many years while everybody else outright refused to touch the codebase. Then they blamed Metux for \"breaking compatibility.\" While this sounds like a plausible reason, long time Linux users could recall that every major X release broke something in one way or another. It's just how it is, there is no way around it. They blamed Metux for doing s", "context": "", "use_case": "X server fork", "switched_from": "", "story": "XWayland 26.1-rc1 Released Two Years After the Last Release"}, {"id": 783216288, "item_id": 48951018, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48951018", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Working on it:", "excerpt": "> The underlying graphics engine, the thing that puts pixels on the screen. X11 is 4 million lines of code, a beast very few can claim they understand. Working on it: https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver And they also deleted old code too. A lot of the old code could probably be removed, but is it really that relevant whether you have 4 millions line of code or 2 million lines of code? C is in my opinion too overbose.", "context": "", "use_case": "reducing X server codebase", "switched_from": "", "story": "Frame \u2013 the first Linux Assembly X server"}, {"id": 779246208, "item_id": 48702888, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48702888", "by": "calvinmorrison", "date": "2026-06-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Xlibre (the only current actively developed implementation of a X11 server) has a new extension - XNamespace", "excerpt": "Xlibre (the only current actively developed implementation of a X11 server) has a new extension - XNamespace to address some challenges as well. https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver/blob/master/doc/Xnamespace.md", "context": "", "use_case": "X11 server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Enhancing X11 Application Security with LXC"}, {"id": 777693504, "item_id": 48605844, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48605844", "by": "calvinmorrison", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So I am glad to see the momentum, the cleanups, and most of all, the continued dedication", "excerpt": "So I have been kind of idly watching this, trying to avoid the political. Every few days i jump in, do a git pull and look at commits. Over time I have been pasting them into the IRC and chatting about it. Some are clearly like 'wow this is an obvious fix' to bugs that seem to have been long standing. papercut type bugs. Some are larger refactors and clean ups that someone who is putting a project to bed wouldn't bot", "context": "", "use_case": "X11 display server", "switched_from": "", "story": "XLibre XServer 25.2.0 Released"}, {"id": 758274928, "item_id": 47392183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47392183", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-03-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "imagine if a non-corporate controlled ecosystem would emerge.", "excerpt": "Many theories. A simple one is that corporations wanted more control. See systemd's rise - not related to wayland as such, but to corporate-driven influence. I am not saying all of the design is corporate-controlled. But a ton of propaganda is associated with how wayland was advertised, until some folks had enough with it and decided to stop buying the \"xorg is dead\" routine these corporations push on: https://github", "context": "", "use_case": "Xorg fork", "switched_from": "", "story": "Separating the Wayland Compositor and Window Manager"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 748588656, "item_id": 46786791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46786791", "by": "the_why_of_y", "date": "2026-01-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the founder of X11Libre was removed from the X.Org project for demonstrated incompetence.", "excerpt": "My understanding is that the founder of X11Libre was removed from the X.Org project for demonstrated incompetence. https://www.phoronix.com/news/X.Org-Server-Lots-Of-Reverts", "context": "", "use_case": "X server fork", "switched_from": "", "story": "Xfwl4 \u2013 The Roadmap for a Xfce Wayland Compositor"}]}], "who": [{"by": "clemens3", "context": "long-time Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46014854", "date": "2025-11-22"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["x server fork", "reducing x server codebase", "x11 server", "x11 display server", "xorg fork", "x server"], "compared": [{"slug": "wayland", "name": "Wayland", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "xorg", "name": "Xorg", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49366474", "title": "XWayland 26.1-rc1 Released Two Years After the Last Release", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48948597", "title": "Frame \u2013 the first Linux Assembly X server", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48701936", "title": "Enhancing X11 Application Security with LXC", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48605778", "title": "XLibre XServer 25.2.0 Released", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47388137", "title": "Separating the Wayland Compositor and Window Manager", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46779645", "title": "Xfwl4 \u2013 The Roadmap for a Xfce Wayland Compositor", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"warn": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 789951280, "item_id": 49371955, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49371955", "by": "sertraline", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Xlibre brought XNamespaces -- as well as HDR and seat management", "excerpt": "Yep, it is important to remember Metux was a sole guy supporting Xorg for many years while everybody else outright refused to touch the codebase. Then they blamed Metux for \"breaking compatibility.\" While this sounds like a plausible reason, long time Linux users could recall that every major X release broke something in one way or another. It's just how it is, there is no way around it. They blamed Metux for doing s", "context": "", "use_case": "X server fork", "switched_from": "", "story": "XWayland 26.1-rc1 Released Two Years After the Last Release"}, {"id": 783216288, "item_id": 48951018, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48951018", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Working on it:", "excerpt": "> The underlying graphics engine, the thing that puts pixels on the screen. X11 is 4 million lines of code, a beast very few can claim they understand. Working on it: https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver And they also deleted old code too. A lot of the old code could probably be removed, but is it really that relevant whether you have 4 millions line of code or 2 million lines of code? C is in my opinion too overbose.", "context": "", "use_case": "reducing X server codebase", "switched_from": "", "story": "Frame \u2013 the first Linux Assembly X server"}, {"id": 779246208, "item_id": 48702888, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48702888", "by": "calvinmorrison", "date": "2026-06-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Xlibre (the only current actively developed implementation of a X11 server) has a new extension - XNamespace", "excerpt": "Xlibre (the only current actively developed implementation of a X11 server) has a new extension - XNamespace to address some challenges as well. https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver/blob/master/doc/Xnamespace.md", "context": "", "use_case": "X11 server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Enhancing X11 Application Security with LXC"}, {"id": 777693504, "item_id": 48605844, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48605844", "by": "calvinmorrison", "date": "2026-06-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So I am glad to see the momentum, the cleanups, and most of all, the continued dedication", "excerpt": "So I have been kind of idly watching this, trying to avoid the political. Every few days i jump in, do a git pull and look at commits. Over time I have been pasting them into the IRC and chatting about it. Some are clearly like 'wow this is an obvious fix' to bugs that seem to have been long standing. papercut type bugs. Some are larger refactors and clean ups that someone who is putting a project to bed wouldn't bot", "context": "", "use_case": "X11 display server", "switched_from": "", "story": "XLibre XServer 25.2.0 Released"}, {"id": 758274928, "item_id": 47392183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47392183", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-03-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "imagine if a non-corporate controlled ecosystem would emerge.", "excerpt": "Many theories. A simple one is that corporations wanted more control. See systemd's rise - not related to wayland as such, but to corporate-driven influence. I am not saying all of the design is corporate-controlled. But a ton of propaganda is associated with how wayland was advertised, until some folks had enough with it and decided to stop buying the \"xorg is dead\" routine these corporations push on: https://github", "context": "", "use_case": "Xorg fork", "switched_from": "", "story": "Separating the Wayland Compositor and Window Manager"}, {"id": 748588656, "item_id": 46786791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46786791", "by": "the_why_of_y", "date": "2026-01-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the founder of X11Libre was removed from the X.Org project for demonstrated incompetence.", "excerpt": "My understanding is that the founder of X11Libre was removed from the X.Org project for demonstrated incompetence. https://www.phoronix.com/news/X.Org-Server-Lots-Of-Reverts", "context": "", "use_case": "X server fork", "switched_from": "", "story": "Xfwl4 \u2013 The Roadmap for a Xfce Wayland Compositor"}, {"id": 736237664, "item_id": 46014854, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46014854", "by": "clemens3", "date": "2025-11-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "when the time comes to update my xserver, I will have a look at them - just to show my support.", "excerpt": "I am surprised, 87 comments and so far nobody has mentioned X11Libre. They claim 30 developers right now. Don't know if true and if they are any good, but when the time comes to update my xserver, I will have a look at them - just to show my support. Ah aeh, Wayland, it too got pitched to me recently. But I don't see it improves on any use case I have, but actively disables functionality I need. So a big no go and pa", "context": "long-time Linux user", "use_case": "X server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Exploring the Fragmentation of Wayland, an xdotool adventure"}]}