Fedora is a distribution that has always stayed on the cutting edge of innovation, but this time, it will surprise even its most die-hard supporters.
As we reported back in September, there is a proposal about the upcoming KDE Plasma 6 to be included in the Fedora 40, which is expected to be released around the end of April 2024.
So far, nothing surprising, given that the Plasma 6 release date is set for February 28, 2024. The new major version of the desktop environment promises to bring many changes and improvements, becoming a milestone in its future evolution.
However, the more intriguing aspect of the proposal is the suggestion to remove X11 support from the Plasma desktop completely in Fedora 40 and rely only on the Wayland session.
For Fedora Linux, the transition to KDE Plasma 6 will also include dropping support for the X11 session entirely, leaving only Plasma Wayland as the sole offered desktop mode.
And this is already a fact! With 6+1 votes, the proposal was approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo) – a unit responsible for approval and coordination of changes for the Fedora releases.
Considering that a similar proposal has already been made for the GNOME desktop, it seems like next year’s Fedora will be the first distribution to switch entirely to Wayland, abandoning X11 altogether.
Something that has been talked about in the Linux ecosystem for years, but no distribution has dared to implement it thoroughly.
So I don’t know if 2024 will be another announced year of Linux on the desktop, but all signs point to one for Wayland on the desktop. Let’s face it – X11 is ancient and gets virtually no development anymore except minimal patching when necessary.
On the other hand, Wayland is the future. Whether or not this appeals to the general Linux user, it offers a far simpler and more modern design, which improves efficiency and security for Linux desktop environments. Not to mention that, unlike X11, Wayland has enjoyed active development in recent years.
Before these things happen, however, we are all waiting for the much anticipated Fedora 39 release – which will include GNOME 45 as a flagship feature – to arrive on November 7 following two consecutive delays.
In conclusion, by focusing on Wayland, Fedora is positioning itself at the forefront of a movement that is likely to become the standard across all major Linux distributions soon. So, all we have to do is wait and see if these predictions come true.
