Ubuntu 24.10 to Default to Wayland for Nvidia Users

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall sentiment on Wayland vs Xorg

  • Experiences are highly mixed: some report Wayland as “rock solid” and far better than Xorg (especially on Intel/AMD), others find it unusable and revert to X11 within hours or days.
  • A recurring pattern: Wayland works great until a specific workflow breaks (e.g., snap apps not launching, screen sharing issues, glitches in Zoom/Chrome), then users drop back to Xorg.
  • Several users say they’ll stay on Xorg “as long as possible,” trying Wayland occasionally to see if things have improved.

Nvidia + Wayland

  • Many describe Nvidia+Wayland as “a nightmare”: lag, flickering, jumping cursor, bad gaming behavior, and compositor crashes.
  • Arch/Plasma, Sway, and wlroots-based compositors are frequently mentioned as especially fragile with Nvidia, even on recent RTX cards and drivers.
  • Some report good results with proprietary drivers, kernel modesetting (nvidia_drm.modeset=1), and certain desktops (notably KDE Plasma 6 on Arch), but this is not universal.
  • There’s hope that recent/future Nvidia driver releases and big distros dropping Xorg by default will finally push Nvidia to fix remaining issues.

End‑user benefits and regressions

  • Clear wins cited for Wayland:
    • Per-monitor scaling (e.g., 4K laptop + non‑scaled external monitor).
    • Better multi-monitor reliability in complex 4×4K setups.
    • Tear‑free rendering and smoother scrolling in browsers.
    • Improved security and isolation between apps; better foundation for HDR.
  • Regressions / missing pieces:
    • Remote desktop, screen sharing, and some portals behave worse or are inconsistent.
    • Tools like xdotool, easystroke, GlobalProtect VPN client, and some screen savers/macros either break or lack good Wayland-native replacements.
    • Some applications still run under XWayland, muddying the experience.

Window managers, workflows, and alternatives

  • Strong interest in tiling WMs (i3, Sway, xmonad, Qtile, tmux/3mux), but also pushback from users who find tiling more work than floating WMs with good virtual desktop setups.
  • Sway on Nvidia is often problematic (flickering, cursor issues), despite workarounds like --unsupported-gpu and wlroots-nvidia.
  • Some report excellent stability with Sway/Wayland on Intel/AMD, including suspend/resume and multi-monitor, contrasting with buggy GNOME/X11 experiences.

Architecture, ecosystem, and “what went wrong”

  • Multiple comments explain that:
    • Linux splits kernel, display protocol (X11/Wayland), and compositors, unlike Windows’ integrated stack.
    • Wayland is a protocol; wlroots and compositors implement it.
  • Critiques of Wayland’s slow maturity:
    • “Second-system effect” and overly minimal core protocols forced each desktop/WM to reinvent key pieces, creating fragmentation.
    • Features like screen sharing took many years to catch up to X11.
  • Some argue X’s age hides that its surviving code and design are exceptionally good, making any replacement hard to surpass.