The team of developers for the Xfce desktop environment has announced the start of development of a new composite server, Xfwl4, utilizing the Wayland protocol. In Xfwl4, it has been decided not to use the codebase of the currently used window manager, xfwm4, and to develop the project from scratch in Rust, using the Smithay library. The project is in the initial stages of development, with the first beta release expected in mid-2026. The code for Xfwl4 is distributed under the GPLv3 license.
Xfwl4 aims to implement all the functionality available in xfwm4, including the ability to use existing xfconf settings and the configuration interface, but taking into account the specifics of using Wayland instead of X11. Among the advanced features, a significant overhaul of session launch logic, implementation of the Wayland protocol xdg-session-management, and support for launching X11 applications via XWayland are noted.
The reason for creating a new composite server is mentioned as an unsuccessful attempt to achieve simultaneous support for both X11 and Wayland within the existing codebase of the xfwm4 window manager, which was initially designed with a focus on tight integration with the X11 protocol, making it difficult to separate the common window management logic from the specifics of X11.
The gradual addition of Wayland support to xfwm4 has been recognized as impractical due to the likelihood of decreased stability and the emergence of new bugs during the refactoring process. It has proven simpler to keep xfwm4 tied to X11 while concurrently developing a new composite server for Wayland. Additional reasons include the inability to adapt certain X11 window management concepts for Wayland and the necessity of using the C language and wlroots library if development of xfwm4 were to continue, despite the existence of better alternatives.
Xfwl4 is set to develop on top of the Smithay library, which provides an implementation of almost all official extensions of the Wayland protocol, as well as protocols wlroots and KDE. Smithay is used in such projects as Cosmic and Niri. Similarly to wlroots, the Smithay library offers high-level abstractions while allowing interference with low-level systems and adapting graphics output methods, input device handling, Wayland protocol behavior, and tasks related to desktop environment construction according to specific needs. The Rust language was chosen for its difficulty in making memory errors, which reduces the likelihood of issues that lead to crashes.
Source: opennet.ru
