# Xorg 40 Hacker News commenters recommended Xorg and 36 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 22 years (3 owners). **Verdict:** People recommend Xorg because it works reliably with scaling, multiple monitors and existing setups. Critics say its development has stalled as Wayland takes over. ## Why people recommend it - Works reliably out of the box (6 comments): "Xorg.conf has worked out of the box with no or minimal configuration for the past 20 years or so." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46790537)) "As I type this comment on Xorg, I assure you it does "actually work"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47020748)) "I am using it on all my computers, works fine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46967654)) - Handles DPI and fractional scaling (5 comments): "XRandR has either always, or has effectively always provided the information required for GUI toolkits to scale their widgets according to a screen's DPI." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45861175)) "Technically Xorg can handle fractional scaling across mixed dpi and refresh rate monitors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383646)) "I have ran xfce under xorg for years now on hi-dpi screens" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46489386)) - Preferred by long-time users (6 comments): "Back to Xorg and Gnome then, because I need accelerated graphics." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46087748)) "I'll stick to xorg and openbox for many years to come." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46486567)) "It's the last thing I miss from Xorg." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46382444)) - Handles mixed monitors and refresh rates (4 comments): "I was able to get Xorg to render to a virtual framebuffer and treat the monitors as appropriately scaled windows onto it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47396091)) "Technically Xorg can handle fractional scaling across mixed dpi and refresh rate monitors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383646)) "VRR works fine on xorg and has for quite a long while now" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49369256)) ## What people warn about - Stalled development and few maintainers (3 comments): "X11 has its problems, but even if they are fixable, no one seems to want to work on Xorg anymore" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46789984)) "the developers of Xorg are _intentionally_ going to stop supporting it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46106548)) "xorg is a dead project that doesn't take any patches from anywhere" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654940)) - Legacy code and technical debt (3 comments): "tons of legacy cruft in there intended for working with hardware that hasn't been in use since circa 1992" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46537746)) "It is a 400K LOC behemoth of a project and it has a ridiculous amount of technical debt." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45942234)) "stuff that got crammed into Xorg at some point whether it made sense or not." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49377341)) - Maintainers reject patches to favor Wayland (4 comments): "deliberately not accepting features or patches to push Wayland, which is kind of frustrating" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49375699)) "the Xorg maintainers (who are also behind Wayland efforts) are actively trying to kill it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47450112)) "Xorg team had accepted Enrico's patches then did not release them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49371466)) - Extra dependencies pulled into apps (3 comments): "Getting all of LLVM mesa linux cmake ninja glibc gcc binutils xorg KDE to work is more work than in 2005 or 2010." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46711673)) "Classic Microsoft gestapo tactics: shoehorn Xorg dependencies into tons of unrelated apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46795385)) "Well if three independent programs have to coordinate to make it work, then I would state that it do not support it at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46385217)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Wayland](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wayland.md): 272 recommend - [X11 (X.Org)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/x11.md): 140 recommend - [XLibre](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xlibre.md): 31 recommend - [X Window System](https://hackerapproved.com/p/x-window-system.md): 27 recommend - [Arcan](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arcan.md): 15 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Xorg", https://hackerapproved.com/p/xorg/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).