[joshklein]

Fair. The point I’m trying to convey - without burdening the reader with too many specifics - is that there isn’t really any problem with Wayland on non-Linux systems per se, but rather fundamental philosophical and design differences that spiral way out into other parts of the operating system and beyond (into hardware).

A question like whether or not IPC and application buses are managed by a supposed display manager is a more complicated decision than it appears on the surface, with lots of questions that need to be asked that feel like you’re challenging the literal meaning of words depending on which contextual paradigm you’re approaching the discussion from.

The net result is Wayland being a reasonable solution to a real problem that still further isolates Linux into a GUI desktop silo. The result is only “cross compatibility” if you consider the “cross” to mean across Linux distributions, which - in fairness - is actually what most people DO seem to mean.

[kllrnohj]

I got your point, but I'm flat out disagreeing with it. Wayland aligns Linux with the philosophical & design differences of other OS's, it doesn't diverge at all.

In the same way that X's unique snowflake design hasn't significantly impacted cross-OS compatibility, why would Wayland make this any harder? If anything Wayland reduces cross-OS complexity as you can finally have a compositor API on Linux like you have on literally every other OS, which greatly reduces the friction for things like embedding video within an app.

But otherwise right now on any cross-OS application the design is going to assume that composition, clipboard, and keyboard shortcuts are all independent systems. Only on X is that not true. X is the unique, unorthodox design in the broader world of "all OSes"

[joshklein]

I agree that X is the odd duck out in its attempt to follow the Unix philosophy. Wayland further pursues the “GNU is Not Unix” principle by introducing a modern desktop paradigm to pair with its modern application busses and other modern features.