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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Are there any things in Linux that need to be started over from scratch? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm curious how software can be created and evolve over time. I'm afraid that at some point, we'll realize there are issues with the software we're using that can only be remedied by massive changes or a complete rewrite.

Are there any instances of this happening? Where something is designed with a flaw that doesn't get realized until much later, necessitating scrapping the whole thing and starting from scratch?

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[–] atzanteol 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

X11 is 40 years old. I'd say it's been rather successful in the "won't need to be replaced for some time" category. Some credit where due.

There's nothing so far that can't be done in Wayland for technical implementation reasons. It's all because some of the protocols aren't ready yet, or not implemented yet.

I mean .. It doesn't matter why it can't be done. Just that it can't be done.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

40 years old is also what makes it so hard to replace or even reimplement. The bugs are all decade old features, everything is written specifically for Xorg, all of which needs to be emulated correctly. It sure did serve us well, it's impressive how long we've managed to make it work with technology well beyond the imagination of the engineers in the 80s.

There's this for the protocols: https://github.com/probonopd/wayland-x11-compat-protocols

It can be done, it's just nobody wants to do it. It's not really worth the effort, when you can work on making it work properly in Wayland instead. That way you don't need XWayland in the first place, but also XWayland can then implement it using the same public API everyone else does so it works on every compositor.