# X.org X server

12 Hacker News commenters recommended X.org X server and 17 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Long-running free display server people still rely on for working setups and legacy software, though critics say its security model is weak and development has stalled.

## Why people recommend it

- Mature and feature-complete (3 comments): "Xorg already had this, since you can set the DPI for each display through RandR/xrandr" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46382456)) "I do not see what it offers that X does not already provide." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45844011)) "I consider xorg to be 'feature complete'." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48937136))
- Legacy compatibility; avoids forced Wayland (3 comments): "Some people continue to develop X, so I hope this is sufficient that I can continue to avoid Wayland." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48285100)) "So you've managed to get redhat to commit to continue to package an X server, then?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46537588)) "A server does for backwards compatibility and this is a good thing!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45819938))
- Works fine for existing setups (2 comments): "X.org worked entirely fine for me, sans some NVIDIA driver config I had to set up in /etc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46382663)) "from X.org which did the job" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617243))

## What people warn about

- Weak security model and vulnerabilities (5 comments): "X11's practical absence of any security mechanisms for user sessions means you should probably not run any kind of low-trust UI program anyway" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45791446)) "X11 security vulnerabilities are more numerous and as nasty as they've ever been." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48372348)) "Linux desktop security and privacy absolutely sucks, and X.org is part of that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46782250))
- Neglected; bitrot and stalled development (4 comments): "stopping any major development on X.org immediately even though it's was the one and only option at the time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45796810)) "There's still bitrot on the X.org side even if your DM is maintained" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46097874)) "Xorg is largely neglected now, it still works mostly by luck." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46508610))
- Wayland simpler; X carries bloat (2 comments): "getting stuff like VRR on Wayland working is way easier than X.org" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47391349)) "the X Server has a bunch of capabilities which are irrelevant" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47457119))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Wayland](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wayland.md): 272 recommend
- [X11 (X.Org)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/x11.md): 140 recommend
- [Xorg](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xorg.md): 40 recommend
- [XLibre](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xlibre.md): 31 recommend
- [X Window System](https://hackerapproved.com/p/x-window-system.md): 27 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "X.org X server", https://hackerapproved.com/p/x-org/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).