Eight open-source projects keep X11 alive as KDE, GNOME drop native support

KDE has confirmed Plasma 6.7 as its last release with native X11 session support, while GNOME has already removed its X11 session. In response, at least eight active open-source projects are working to maintain X11 functionality through different approaches: desktop environment forks, X.Org Server forks, new server implementations, and a minimal Wayland compositor that runs Xwayland in rootful mode to host full X11 desktops.

The eight projects and their approaches

• SonicDE: KDE Plasma 6 fork that puts X11 first; began as patched KWin/X11, evolved into sonic-win window manager/compositor with Vulkan backend in progress; strips Wayland-only code from KDE components
• Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE): Maintains KDE 3.5 codebase as independent desktop; R14.1.6 released April 2026 with window tiling fixes, transparency fixes, 3D Kicker panel borders
• Wayback: Alpha-quality minimal wlroots-based Wayland compositor that runs Xwayland in rootful mode to host entire X11 desktops without traditional Xorg binary; targets Alpine Linux; MIT-licensed; by Ariadne Conill
• XLibre: Community fork of X.Org Server with TearFree modesetting default, optional atomic modesetting, Xnamespace extension for client separation, seatd support; CI builds for Linux, BSDs, macOS, Windows
• Yserver: Early-stage project by Jos Dehaes; single main contributor
• Three additional X server or port projects mentioned but not detailed in source

Why it matters

The fragmentation reflects divergent community responses to the Wayland transition: some distributions like PeppermintOS are already adopting XLibre as a direct X.Org replacement, while others may benefit from Wayback's approach of eliminating the traditional Xorg binary entirely.