Xlib
Ranked 4 of 4 windowing libraries by recommenders
Free C library for X11 windows that people find easier than GTK for simple apps; critics call its API awkward and poorly designed.
Free C library for X11 windows that people find easier than GTK for simple apps; critics call its API awkward and poorly designed.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Easier than GTK for simple apps
“it was easier to either use Xlib directly or go the gtk route”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “What Sun got wrong” “building them with raw xlib or tcl is easier than gtk”
Comment from 17 May 2026 in “I don't think AI will make your processes go faster”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poorly designed, awkward API
“The Xlib API also sucks compared to Win32 or Cocoa”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux” “writing code against Xlib is horrible”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “I Hate: Programming Wayland Applications” “nor is it even a suitable API surface”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux”
Other windowing libraries people recommend
The three most recommended other windowing libraries, 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.
See all 4 windowing libraries, rankedWhat people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it was easier to either use Xlib directly or go the gtk route”
“building them with raw xlib or tcl is easier than gtk”
“The Xlib API also sucks compared to Win32 or Cocoa”
“nor is it even a suitable API surface”
“XLib creates a synchronous API on top of it (and as a result suffers from unnecessary roundtrip delays)”
“writing code against Xlib is horrible”
“< 100 lines of C code is enough for a simple app.”
“Xlib and Motif are stable APIs.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.