A chapter of Linux's history comes to a close as Kubuntu drops X11 support for Wayland

It seems this year is the year a few operating systems move on from their old shells. For example, Microsoft is sunsetting Windows 10 this October, hoping that all its users will migrate to Windows 11 (and not Linux). Now, it seems that Linux is seeing its own shift as distros begin dropping support for X11 and embracing Wayland.

While distros have been slowly adopting Wayland, not all of them have made the jump. Well, you can check one more distro off the list, as Kubuntu is going the way of its bigger brother and removing X11 as an option for new installs.

Kubuntu now only installs Wayland by default during setup

As spotted by Neowin, Kubuntu is removing X11 installs during setup, instead going all-in on Wayland. If you're not aware of what's going on, X11 is a desktop rendering system that first came out around 1990. To keep things fresh, there's a new desktop rendering technology called Wayland, which some distros are adopting. There's a whole debate between using X11 and Wayland, with the former being more stable due to years of additions and tweaks, while the latter is newer and kinder to developers.

Rik Mills from Kubuntu gives their stance on the topic on the Ubuntu Launchpad:

Kubuntu should now be fully ready for this. In fact, on latest Questing daily ISO we no longer install the Plasma X11 session by default. It can be installed for users who want it via the package plasma-session-x11.

Rationale is that it is highly improbable that we can support the X11 session in 26.04 LTS (or now even), so Like Ubuntu desktop it is probably better to rip off this sticking plaster in 25.10 and concentrate on wayland with less distraction.

So, yes, while Kubuntu is now using Wayland by default, people who still want to use X11 can grab the plasma-session-x11 package and bring it back. However, people who are fresh to Kubuntu will experience it for the first time using Wayland. Hopefully, Rik Mills is correct, and it won't put off people from using the operating system.

Given how Windows 10 is falling out of support this year, we may see some people give Kubuntu a try for the first time in the upcoming months. In fact, here at XDA, we're taking the time to sample some Linux distros and see what all the fuss is about. So far, I've been really impressed with what I've seen.

Here are a few of our pieces on the topic:

• 4 Linux distros you should use instead of upgrading to Windows 11
• 6 reasons why Linux is better than ever
• I tried Linux Mint as a Windows fanboy and here's how it went