My opinion - today - is that X doesn't work on laptops where the user expects to use a touchpad. Nor does it work on a laptop with a resolution that requires scaling (at least not the second you plug in another display).
It also takes a hell of a lot more configuration to reach that state.
It's also not maintained.
So no disrespect, but it really sounds like your argument has boiled down to "I won't acknowledge issues unless they personally impact me and my daily workflow".
Now - I'm fine with that when you're making an argument for the machine you should use personally (hell, I agree with you, if X works and you like, rock on). But that's a pretty disingenuous take to make while discussing the merits of the platform with other folks.
> My opinion - today - is that X doesn't work on laptops where the user expects to use a touchpad. Nor does it work on a laptop with a resolution that requires scaling (at least not the second you plug in another display).
None of those issues actually make X unusable. And I say that while writing this on an X1 Carbon running Debian testing using X in a multi-monitor setup (and yes, this is a totally plug-and-play setup with zero monkeying around in config files... a fact that, frankly, amazes me, having grown up hacking X modelines).
Wayland, by contrast, is literally unusable (as in, it lacks fundamental features that make it something people can't use) in many circumstances due to either compositor bugs, features that don't work by design, or features that don't work due to a lack of solutions or a lack of adoption of those solutions.
And I know this because I've tried to use it. I really like the possibilities it opens up.
But it's so far from mature, at this point, that it simply cannot act as an X replacement for most people.
Frankly, I'm a little shocked distros are making Wayland their default display server ecosystem, as it's an objective step backward for desktop Linux and I expect will scare a lot of neophytes away who wonder why the hell basic features like screensharing still don't yet work in their favourite application.
> You seem to be unable to have a good faith conversation about the merits of Wayland.
Actually, we haven't talked about the merits, yet!
Unfortunately, when I was playing around with Wayland, I struggled a bit to find the benefits that would make it so irresistible that I'd put up with the downsides.
Tear-free? Eh, I have that with X thanks to Intel's drivers. Though I absolutely understand that's not a universal experience.
Different display DPIs? Anything that falls back to Xwayland (which unfortunately is still a lot of applications) look like blurry garbage for obvious reasons, which means it's actually unusable in a lot of circumstances. And that's assuming solid application-level support (I seem to recall Firefox had mixed DPI regressions that were recently resolved, but that's only a vague recollection).
TBH, I was really really rooting for this feature as it could be really nice, and I was deeply disappointed when it didn't work out.
Touchpad gestures? Okay, legit these are really nice! Three-finger workspace switching in Gnome is pretty slick. OTOH, the lack of that feature isn't a dealbreaker, either.
General touchpad improvements? Funny thing is, libinput is being backported into Xorg, which means that you can get a lot of those benefits without switching. For example, I'm using Firefox with libinput2 and it's a fantastic improvement!
Honestly, I'd love a killer feature that'd push me to Wayland and cause me to put up with all the functional regressions. But I simply haven't found one... :(
So, at this point, I'm waiting for the regressions to be resolved. Hopefully we'll get global hotkeys, broadly supported screencasting, better application-level support for things like mixed DPI, and lots of bug fixes so I can finally make the switch!
Honestly - It sounds like it's been a minute since you've tried it.
I can say that 4 years ago I was firmly in the "it isn't ready" camp.
2 years ago, touchpad support was my "killer feature" (I'm left handed and have issues with RSI in my right wrist).
Global hotkeys work pretty much everywhere I've tried in the last year or so (including being able to configure global hotkeys in an electron app I have to maintain for work, which was a nice plus). I also actually tend to like that they're centralized and apps aren't able to just stomp all over the configured hotkeys.
Screencasting is still a pain point, but I actually appreciate the security model that makes it painful, and pipewire is functional enough that I can pretty easily share a screen on anything that can run in a browser (Zoom, Discord, Hangouts - Slack is still a pain).
I don't have issues with XWayland being blurry - although I do have issues with Xwayland windows having the same scaling restrictions as X (If you move a window from a scaled screen to a non-scaled screen, it won't re-adjust). Fortunately, most of my daily apps are now Wayland native, including my editor, my terminal, and my browser (Chromium build with ozone enabled).
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Now, all that said, if you've tried recently and it's still not there, I absolutely get it. But I think it'll move faster than you expect. 4 years ago I certainly wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me I'd like Wayland enough to bother writing out this whole comment chain :D
To be clear you mean that can in your config file or settings menu bind a hotkey to run a particular action if and only if that action can be specified by a particular command line operation.
This is indeed my preferred way to specify such things I like that it is centrally managed and if the application developer lets you interact with the program that way it is quite powerful.
Is this possible on gnome wayland or just under sway?
There is another form of global hotkey configuration wherein the app lets you specify a global command for an operation that may be internally specified and may not be provided via a cli interface and this functionality will never work by design.
The GNOME Settings app allows you to assign global hotkeys under Wayland using the normal GUI [1]. Not sure about configuring those hotkeys in a config file like i3/sway, I assume it’s some dconf thing.
> Now, all that said, if you've tried recently and it's still not there, I absolutely get it.
Unfortunately I tried it... I'd estimate two months ago (I switched back to Debian testing from Ubuntu a couple of months back and decided to give Wayland a shot now that it's the default).
It also takes a hell of a lot more configuration to reach that state.
It's also not maintained.
So no disrespect, but it really sounds like your argument has boiled down to "I won't acknowledge issues unless they personally impact me and my daily workflow".
Now - I'm fine with that when you're making an argument for the machine you should use personally (hell, I agree with you, if X works and you like, rock on). But that's a pretty disingenuous take to make while discussing the merits of the platform with other folks.