Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to use Xorg by default

After some speculation and a default to Wayland in 17.10, Ubuntu has announced Xorg will be the default for the next LTS.

Bionic Beaver, the codename for the next Ubuntu LTS release, is due in April 2018 and will ship with both the traditional Xorg graphics stack as well as the newer Wayland based stack, but Xorg will be the default. 17.10, released in October 2017, ships with the Wayland based graphics server as the default and the Xorg based equivalent is available as an option from the login screen. When we started out on the GNOME Shell route for 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) we knew that we needed to have Wayland as the default option otherwise we wouldn’t know if it would work well for our users in the LTS only 6 months later. The LTS is supported for five years meaning that we need to be certain that what goes out the door on release day will be maintainable and sustainable for the duration and will serve all our users and customers needs, which is no mean feat. As we are roughly half way through the Bionic development cycle, the time was right for us to review that decision and make a call on whether or not Wayland is the right default display server for Bionic. We have decided that we will ship Xorg by default, and that Wayland will be an optional session available from the login screen. Why opt for Xorg by default? There are three main reasons: Screen sharing in software like WebRTC services, Google Hangouts, Skype, etc works well under Xorg. Remote Desktop control for example RDP & VNC works well under Xorg. Recoverability from Shell crashes is less dramatic under Xorg.

For LQ members using Wayland in 17.10, what was your general experience?

--jeremy

Wayland is buggy, blocking root/sudo access to GUI is causing problems for GUI heavy distros as well. I don't think its ready for mainstream yet and sticking with Xorg, especially for LTS release, is the wise move for now.

Originally Posted by zimou13 I've been using Ubuntu 17.10 on my home laptop and there are too many complete GUI lockups for comfort. You can switch to Xorg from the login screen, correct?

If its regular Ubuntu (Gnome) then yes, if its a derivative then I believe they default to Xorg.

if its a derivative then I believe they default to Xor