XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

greenjeans · 2026-02-05 16:10:08

Building from the ground up they say, using Rust. Not dumping X11 though...for now.
https://blog.xfce.org/

"This initiative will utilize a significant portion of the project’s donated funds"

Do tell.

What say ye mousers about this? I don't use it myself so I don't have a dog in this hunt.

Last edited by greenjeans (2026-02-05 16:10:55)

tux_99 · 2026-02-05 17:04:37

From my perspective as a XFCE user who has no interest in Wayland and who doesn't have any insight into the details of how XFCE is developed it seems good because it keeps the wayland code (xfwl4) separate from the X11 part (xfwm4) so if in future they drop the X11 part it should be relatively easy for someone to for fork xfwm4 and continue maintaining it.

But if my assessment is wrong then please enlighten me.

Camtaf · 2026-02-05 18:17:42

As long as they keep X11 compatible & wayland compatible up to date, I have no worries....

I've been using wayland on my RPi without any adverse affect, so can't see any problems with this.

brocashelm · 2026-02-05 20:17:50

Why they are drinking the Wayland Kool-Aid is beyond me. Wayland has been in development for nearly two decades, yet it still can't do a couple of really essential things that X11 had already been doing since the 1990s.

Xfce went downhill after 4.12. It's no longer "lightweight" or "fast". They should've combined forces with MATE devs to fork and maintain GTK2, instead of just sucking up to GN*ME. Just watch, it's going to get worse as GTK3 gets phased out for GTK4, which will obliterate what few "options" users had then.

Altoid · 2026-02-05 21:27:07

Hello:

bracashelm wrote:

Xfce went downhill after 4.12.

Yes, a huge screw-up.

bracashelm wrote:

... it's going to get worse as GTK3 gets phased out ...

Based on what we have seen, I think we can expect exactly that.

Pity ...

Best,

A.

brocashelm · 2026-02-05 21:55:02

Thankfully, if we follow what CAFE (fork of MATE) is doing, particularly CTK (fork of GTK3), we just may be able to avoid GN*ME's further enshittification for the foreseeable future. You can also download the official DEB files here if you don't want to or can't compile for some reason.

greenjeans · 2026-02-05 22:56:07

Yeah, from recent experience it seems to go like this:

1. Hey we're adding support for wayland but we're still shipping X11.
2. Hey we're still shipping X11 but wayland is now the default.
3. Hey we're all in on wayland, but you can still use X11 if you jump through these 30 hoops and re-compile some stuff.
4. Hey we are discontinuing support for X11 for (your own) good.

greenjeans · 2026-02-05 22:59:18

CAFE (fork of MATE) is doing, particularly CTK

Oh yeah, I have the strangest b.......never mind, i'm just excited.

They need to roll back some Mate goofiness, particularly in Caja. And dump the damn mixer.

brocashelm · 2026-02-05 23:26:34

I plan on trying it soon on a VM. CTK would at least mitigate much of the GN*ME stupidity along the way. I hope more GUI software will switch to it if they are hesitant on GTK4 or Qt.

greenjeans wrote:

They need to roll back some Mate goofiness, particularly in Caja. And dump the damn mixer.

There was an attempt to fork MATE as OpenMATE, but the author suddenly vanished (along with his GitHub repository). Totally not suspicious at all... 🤔

Calamity · 2026-02-06 10:36:51

To me, XFCE still has a few saving graces - it can look good and be unobtrusive, but I realize it's pretty much a sinking ship by now.
Will probably switch to IceWM or LXQt at some point given the circumstances.

Devarch · 2026-02-06 19:20:35

But if my assessment is wrong then please enlighten me.

You are right. But if they will adopt wayland and KDE will fall down with systemd cancer, then I'll be able to switch back to xfce

Wayland is not ready and will never be, but it has no problem with scalling and control when multiple displays set up is in place.

JayneCobb · Today 16:58:03

@Calamity @greenjeans I was LONG time XFCE user until their latest announcement. I have the same feeling that greenjeans mentioned above, so I moved to LXQt and Openbox. So far I am happy with LXQt, but what a shame the way XFCE went. It was going down hill for a while but this was the last straw.

pcalvert · Today 19:33:21

With Xfce, you are not required to use their window manager (xfwm4); you can replace it with a different one. For a couple of ideas, consider using Openbox or IceWM (with the taskbar hidden) instead.

FYI:

Using another Window Manager
https://wiki.xfce.org/howto/other_window_manager

Last edited by pcalvert (Today 20:00:36)

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#1 2026-02-05 16:10:08

XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#2 2026-02-05 17:04:37

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#3 2026-02-05 18:17:42

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#4 2026-02-05 20:17:50

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#5 2026-02-05 21:27:07

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#6 2026-02-05 21:55:02

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#7 2026-02-05 22:56:07

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#8 2026-02-05 22:59:18

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#9 2026-02-05 23:26:34

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#10 2026-02-06 10:36:51

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#11 2026-02-06 19:20:35

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#12 Today 16:58:03

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

#13 Today 19:33:21

Re: XFCE is building a new WM and compositor for Wayland

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