Redazione RHC : 17 July 2025 08:10
The Linux ecosystem is once again in the spotlight, with a fork of the good old X.org taking center stage. The new project, called Xlibre, was launched by German developer Enrico Weigelt, who was already involved in the X server controversy. According to him, Red Hat is deliberately delaying X.org development in favor of Wayland, which, Weigelt claims, led to Xlibre being excluded from the Fedora distribution. However, it’s not this that’s surprising, but the fact that someone seriously suggested including it in Fedora.
In response, one of the core developers of Alpine Linux decided to accelerate the release of an alternative solution called Wayback. This server uses the composite approach of Wayland, but also allows traditional X11 desktops to run via XWayland without having to resort to a full-fledged X server. Developer Ariadna Conneal wrote a blog post about how Wayback works with Window Maker, a NeXT-style window manager, and explained that the project was born in response to the politicized nature of Xlibre.
Xlibre is controversial not only for its architecture, but also for its ideology. The GitHub description explicitly states that the project is “free from any DEI policies,” and the Code of Conduct file is empty. Weigelt himself is known for his far-right views. Despite this, the project is rapidly gaining popularity: over three thousand stars on GitHub, hundreds of forks, and an active discussion on Telegram. It is already supported by Devuan and Artix, and a corresponding package for Arch Linux has appeared in the AUR.
At the same time, Dedoimedo, a former Canonical blogger, sees Xlibre as a long-awaited continuation of X.org. The author criticizes Wayland for excessive resource consumption and instability, citing his tests on AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards. At the same time, parts of the community harshly condemn Xlibre for its ideological underpinnings, calling it a threat to the entire open source world.
This raises a broader question about the politics of the FOSS community. The acronym FOSS conceals two different ideologies: a left-wing one focused on user freedom and source code (Free Software), and a right-wing, more corporate one that promotes open source development as a means of making money (Open Source). The first is embodied by Richard Stallman, the second by Eric S. Raymond, a staunch supporter of the Libertarian Party in the United States. Weigelt and Xlibre are clearly closer to the latter tradition.
In this context, the birth of Wayback is not just a technical initiative, but a symbolic step. The project has already received official support from Freedesktop and has even acquired a new logo. Its promotion was made possible largely by the launch of Xlibre, which served as a catalyst. Ironically, it was precisely this opposition that became a means of legitimacy. The Open Source movement, inspired by Raymond’s essay “The Cathedral and the Bazaar,” tries to convince companies that open development improves software, and Free Software founder Richard Stallman has openly stated that “Open Source misses the point of Free Software.”
While Xlibre attracts right-wing enthusiasts and gains distribution support, Wayland continues to cement itself as the standard. Fedora and Ubuntu have already announced their rejection of GNOME’s X11 sessions, and desktops like GNOME, KDE, and Cosmic are confidently moving toward Wayland. However, there remains a whole layer of old, comfortable, but forgotten environments that Wayland doesn’t support. That’s why Wayback has a chance: it promises to give familiar interfaces a second life.
The situation is full of ironies. Wayland, conceived as a modern alternative, is supported by Red Hat, the largest and most corporate entity in the Linux world. And Xlibre, an ideological challenge, appeals to those who feel excluded from the new consensus. Just as X once replaced W in the alphabet (as evidenced by the X.org Foundation logo ), W has now returned as Wayback, changing the rules of the game once again.
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