Wayback 0.1 released

The development team behind Wayback has announced the first preview release of version 0.1, marking a significant milestone in its journey toward becoming a full Xorg replacement. Wayback is a compatibility layer for X11 that enables the operation of traditional, X11-only desktop environments under Wayland. Functioning as an X11 server backed by Wayland, it leverages wlroots and Xwayland, with the eventual aim of replacing the Xorg binary to reduce the maintenance burden for Linux distribution maintainers.

Wayback 0.1 released: A new Wayland-Based X11 environment

Since its announcement on June 28, rapid development has made the project increasingly stable and functional. While still considered alpha-quality software, Wayback 0.1 is already suitable for daily use by users with simple requirements, provided they can tolerate occasional bugs. The release is available via the Git repository, with distribution-level packaging expected soon. Key limitations in the current version include:

• No multi-monitor support (#8)
• Lack of DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling) control (#55)
• Several unimplemented or stubbed Xorg options (#14, #51)
• Non-functional features such as mouse locking, which impacts apps like first-person shooters and XScreenSaver
   

Despite these caveats, core contributors are already using Wayback as their daily environment to identify and fix issues. Community involvement is encouraged, especially in the form of bug reports and merge requests. Notable progress since the June 28 launch includes:

• Migration from kaniini’s GitHub repository to the freedesktop.org GitLab group, with thanks to contributors like Conan_Kudo and mupuf.
• Establishment of a Matrix bridge for the IRC channel on Libera.Chat (#wayback:catircservices.org).
• Structural refactoring of the project into a modular, X.org-like system:
• wayback-compositor: the core Wayland compositor
• Xwayback: provides an Xorg-compatible command-line interface
• wayback-session: a temporary startx-compatible interface
• Centralized logging functionality
• Introduction of clang-format and a standardized coding style
• Packaging in several distributions, including Alpine Linux, Nix, Arch Linux (AUR), and Fedora
• Implementation of a custom option parser to support Xorg-style flags (e.g. +opt)
   

Numerous contributors have resolved bugs and improved code quality, including axtlos, Conan_Kudo, Consolatis, dramforever, funderscore, jmaselbas, kaniini, navi, fossdd, MonterraByte, and Sertonix.

Wayback now has a distinctive logo inspired by the X.org symbol, a stylized “W” within an orange circle. Accompanying this branding is a newly launched website, powered by Hugo. Contributors to this effort include jmaselbas, whitequark, and funderscore.

The team expressed gratitude to all contributors involved in reaching this first release milestone. Continued support is encouraged, especially from new contributors. Interested developers can join the conversation in the IRC channel #wayback on Libera.Chat or on Matrix at #wayback:catircservices.org.

Although a stable release is still on the horizon, the project is progressing steadily. Contributions of all sizes are welcome. Numerous developers have made significant contributions to the codebase:

• Anna (navi) Figueiredo Gomes: Enhancements to environment handling and simplification of xwayback
• Ariadne Conill: Initial architecture, licensing, and compatibility patches
• Consolatis: Support for nested Wayland startup
• Ferass El Hafidi: Extensive environment variable management, bug fixes, and documentation
• Joaquim Monteiro: CI setup and Meson build configurations
• Jules Maselbas: Code cleanup and symbol optimization
• Michal Vanis: Protocol streamlining
• Neal Gompa: Fedora CI integration, documentation updates, and clang-format enforcement
• Sertonix: Build system cleanups
• axtlos: Logging infrastructure, argument handling, VT switching, and manpage additions
• axtloss: Installer and session launch refinements, getopt integration, and Wayback structure
• dramforever: Utility function integration
• fossdd: Packaging and manpage generation
   

Wayback is a community-driven project, and its development roadmap remains open to all contributors eager to help shape the future of Wayland-based X11 compatibility.