The Fedora Workstation Working Group has decided to stop installing the GNOME Xorg sessions by default, starting with Fedora 41. This decision aims to encourage users to switch to Wayland while ensuring that existing installations are not broken.
In other words, following the move to remove X11 from Plasma 6 in Fedora 40, Fedora 41, set for release at the end of the year, will also drop the option to use the Xorg session from the login screen. This change aligns with Fedora’s overall direction toward using Wayland.
Regarding this, the GNOME classic session, which includes both Wayland and Xorg sessions, will be split to maintain the Classic session as a default installation. The change, initially proposed for Fedora 40, was deemed too late for implementation and will be formally introduced in Fedora 41 as a system-wide change.
To clarify, Fedora will continue to support Xorg in GNOME; it just won’t be included by default in new installations. However, users who do upgrades between major Fedora releases will still have Xorg, as it remains available through in-place upgrades. For those with fresh Fedora 41 installations, adding Xorg will require manual installation of the necessary packages.
How the Fedora community will react to transitioning from Xorg to Wayland is uncertain. While other distributions are cautiously moving away from Xorg, Fedora stands out for its eagerness to innovate, boldly shifting to rely fully on Wayland.
Despite numerous user complaints indicating that Wayland may not be fully prepared for widespread use due to persistent issues, there’s a consensus that Xorg’s era is nearing its end, and Wayland represents the future of display protocols. However, whether pushing forward with technology with its share of problems is the best approach remains a question that only time can answer.
This link provides more information on Fedora 41’s decision to remove Xorg support from its default installation.
“Fedora 41, set for release at the end of the year, will also adopt Wayland as the default for its GNOME desktop environment”
Wayland has been the default on GNOME for Fedora since Fedora 22, nearly a decade ago. The change for Fedora 41 is not making Wayland the default, it’s removing the *non*-default X.org session from the initial installed system payload. To actually use that session at present, you have to make a choice in the login screen.
Thanks for the note, Adam. The necessary corrections have been made.
Best,
Bobby