X Window System
Ranked 5 of 9 display servers by recommenders
People recommend it for its flexible window management, scriptability, and reliability, and it still works well for many users. Critics say its code is aging, poorly maintained, and weak on modern input like palm rejection.
People recommend it for its flexible window management, scriptability, and reliability, and it still works well for many users. Critics say its code is aging, poorly maintained, and weak on modern input like palm rejection.
53 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 27
- criticize it
- 26
- approval share
- 51%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 27 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Flexible window manager customization
“bringing window managers, system trays, hotkeys bindings, and a whole bunch of other things not designed together but that could still work together”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “Replacing Systemd with OpenRC in Debian” “What made the X architecture much more interesting is that it avoided coupling the window manger to the compositor.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Exploring the Fragmentation of Wayland, an xdotool adventure” “X Window didn't do this by default and you could adjust window manager behavior however you liked”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe” - Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Phoenix: A modern X server written from scratch in Zig”
- Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Phoenix: A modern X server written from scratch in Zig”
Reliable, works out of the box
“They all worked out of the box and were able to scale correctly once configured.”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Can I start using Wayland in 2026?” “X, which is open source and still works fine for a lot of people.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Wayland set the Linux Desktop back by 10 years” “X "just works" well enough for too many use cases”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “XFCE Is Great” - Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “GNOME 50 completes the migration to Wayland, dropping X11 backend code”
Preferred over Wayland by users
“Reverted to a functional, and productively familiar setup with X.”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Phoenix: A modern X server written from scratch in Zig” “I still prefer it to Wayland for various reasons”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Vouch” “This is one of the main reasons I stick with X.”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “Gnome and Mozilla Discuss Proposal to Disable Middle Mouse Paste on Linux” Network transparent client-server design
“X windows was network transparent though not a well thought out design (see audio.)”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Why TUIs Are Back” “something conceived from the start as a client/server display protocol”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Can I start using Wayland in 2026?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Unmaintained, poorly designed code
“X code was so bad that paralelizing and making it thread-safe required so many locks that it ran slower!”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “KDE Plasma 6.8 Will Go Wayland-Exclusive in Dropping X11 Session Support” “X is deprecated and unmaintained making making the GUI work there a constant struggle”
Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Why TUIs Are Back” “The major comitters and maintainers of X decided it was a lost cause and unfixable.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Wayland set the Linux Desktop back by 10 years” - Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Released”
Weak keyboard and stylus input
“If you configure Shift to switch layouts, you won't be able to use it as a modifier.”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “Exploring the Fragmentation of Wayland, an xdotool adventure” “X doesn't support palm rejection so I can't use my stylus/touchscreen”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Wayland set the Linux Desktop back by 10 years” “international keyboard support is pretty bad in both X and Wayland”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Exploring the Fragmentation of Wayland, an xdotool adventure” Chatty and slow over networks
“It is absolutely an inferior and chatty protocol for any other application though”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Xfwl4 – The Roadmap for a Xfce Wayland Compositor” “X was never, ever, designed for high-latency networks.”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Computational chemistry, Locally? My rant on SSH”
Other display servers people recommend
The four most recommended other display servers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wayland | 272 | 405 | 40% | 12 | 3 yrs32 owners | — |
| X11 (X.Org) | 140 | 102 | 58% | 12 | 20 yrs9 owners | — |
| Xorg | 40 | 36 | 53% | 11 | 22 yrs3 owners | — |
| XLibre | 31 | 37 | 46% | 8 | — | — |
| X Window SystemThis page | 27 | 26 | 51% | 11 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 57 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“decidedly not bad in my experience”
“before X windows took off for unix boxes”
“I always thought this was a feature of X”
“Meanwhile on X what you need is: 1. Have X”
“X was never, ever, designed for high-latency networks.”
“Borders cause complications in the protocol, servers, and clients, but don’t provide enough payback to justify their existence.”
“bringing window managers, system trays, hotkeys bindings, and a whole bunch of other things not designed together but that could still work together”
“Best way to be satisfied with a Linux distribution is to not install X or Wayland”
“X-Windows and it's ilk are awesome software.”
“I found a lot of leverage in using a stack of electron and X.”
“X windows was network transparent though not a well thought out design (see audio.)”
“X is deprecated and unmaintained making making the GUI work there a constant struggle”
“The X Window developers were mostly just making it up as they went along.”
“X11 or any network transparent graphics protocol doesn't solve the problems that a terminal solves.”
“it’s been around since the ‘80s.”
“X, which is open source and still works fine for a lot of people.”
“X doesn't support palm rejection so I can't use my stylus/touchscreen”
“The major comitters and maintainers of X decided it was a lost cause and unfixable.”
“it is fully usable on the BSDs”
“I still prefer it to Wayland for various reasons”
“it worked well enough for non-video web sites running Netscape 3.x”
“It is absolutely an inferior and chatty protocol for any other application though”
“X Window didn't do this by default and you could adjust window manager behavior however you liked”
“X "just works" well enough for too many use cases”
“This is one of the main reasons I stick with X.”
“It was a big honking display server because it took up a huge chunk of the stack”
“They all worked out of the box and were able to scale correctly once configured.”
“something conceived from the start as a client/server display protocol”
“The Linux kernel was not born obsolete on arrival like the X Window System was.”
“Th point is that with X I could start with less than 100 lines and switch to using my wm”
“This is just one of the tools I've made for myself with X which I do not want to do without”
“Reverted to a functional, and productively familiar setup with X.”
“It's a dead end that allows me to have HiDPI (aka a 4k display) on Ubuntu 24.04”
“X is still very much the supported graphics environment”
“X code was so bad that paralelizing and making it thread-safe required so many locks that it ran slower!”
“If you configure Shift to switch layouts, you won't be able to use it as a modifier.”
“It's certainly possible with X”
“international keyboard support is pretty bad in both X and Wayland”
“What made the X architecture much more interesting is that it avoided coupling the window manger to the compositor.”
“It hasn't crashed in 15 years.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.