Well, this one really caught me off guard. As you probably know, after the dramatic fork of the X.Org server into a new project called XLibre—led by the developer who’s been its most active contributor in recent years—the open-source community was buzzing with intense debate. And now, there’s another twist in the story.
Fedora Linux (eventually) may soon replace its aging X.Org X11 server with a more actively maintained alternative. A new proposal, dubbed X11Libre, suggests swapping out the current xorg-x11-xserver package for X11Libre (XLibre), targeted for Fedora 43, scheduled for release in late October.
While the change promises better maintenance and new features, it hasn’t been without controversy, largely due to the upstream maintainer’s contentious reputation.
Why the Change? It’s simple – the XLibre fork is actively maintained and introduces several improvements, including:
- Long-term sustainability – With active maintenance, Fedora could extend the lifespan of X11 support, reducing pressure to force users toward Wayland.
- Xnamespace extension – A new feature aimed at improving security isolation between X11 sessions, potentially mitigating some long-standing privilege escalation risks.
- Modernized Xnest – The nested X server has been updated to use libxcb instead of the legacy Xlib, aligning it with modern standards.
Interestingly, the proposal’s owner, Kevin Kofler, has quickly distanced Fedora from the political views of XLibre’s upstream maintainer, who has been criticized for controversial statements and past conflicts with Red Hat. Kofler emphasizes that the technical benefits—not the politics—motivate the change.
Things get even more interesting when you dive into the comments on the proposal discussion. Opinions swing wildly—from people calling the idea “pure insanity” to others embracing it as a great way to give consumers more choices.
For example:
What about my freedom to continue to use Xorg and not have it replaced with crapware from a single dev with a massive chip?
To:
Kofler’s change proposal should be done. Open Source is all about user’s choice. Everything around this topic recently has been someone else’s choice.
The main argument against accepting the proposal is that XLibre is essentially a one-person project, making it seem unreliable and unlikely to have a sustainable future. What’s surprising, though, is how strongly some Fedora developers are pushing back. The intensity of their opposition—and the emotions it’s stirring up—feels a bit out of place for something that should be a more neutral technical discussion.
Anyway, final approval is in the hands of the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo), a key governing body within the Fedora Project that oversees various technical decisions related to the distro’s development.
If approved, the transition should be seamless for most users. The XLibre server is designed as a drop-in replacement, meaning no manual configuration or migration is needed. However, third-party graphics drivers will require a rebuild due to an ABI bump—a standard occurrence with major X server updates.
At the same time, a contingency plan is in place to revert to the original X.Org server if critical issues arise before Fedora 43’s beta freeze. The change’s impact on the release timeline will depend on whether any major regressions affect release-blocking deliverables.
For more information, see the proposal itself.
As always, we’ll keep a close eye on things, and you can count on us to keep you in the loop when there’s any news.
Finally, just a quick note for our readers who might’ve missed the news: with major Linux distributions moving away from X11, the XLibre Xserver project was launched to carry on its legacy, with its very first release, version 25 (Beta), is already officially out.
