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by StillBored 196 days ago
> In case I wasn't clear enough, there was never a screenshot feature. Any X11 client could read any pixel written by any other X11 client.

Which is a load of FUD, the X11 security extensions from (checks google) 1996, restrict this.

2 comments

The 1996 extension had severe limitations. Untrusted clients have no clipboard, but also no GPU acceleration at all and other features were barely tested using it so it was somewhat random if they would work. It breaks a ton of applications and was therefore used by approximately no one.
Ok, so instead of a couple UAC style prompts for screen readers, macro recording, desktop sharing, etc, and some tweaks to GDK, we got what? An entire new backend GDK windowing system, and a pile of broken applications? And its been decades?

And its not like actual flaws people found couldn't be fixed.

There is a word for this.

Did you consider that maybe when you hold an opinion different than the people actually knowledgeable about a topic - like the people developing desktop environments and the former developers of X building Wayland - it might be because you are wrong and have a poor understanding of the field and not because they want to annoy you?

The flaws were not limited to the 1996 poor security extensions. These kind of half broken extensions are everywhere in X11. At some point, if the tweaks you have to do is basically rewriting the whole rendering pipeline and adding new APIs for the most significant systems, what you are doing is strictly équivalent to writing a new piece of software which is exactly what the people behind Wayland did.

And don't worry, the change adverse people you see here complaining about limitations fixed years ago would be complaining the same if the effort was on rewriting part of X11. That's life. Armchair complainers and keyboard warriors will complain while actual doers push things forward.

> Which is a load of FUD, the X11 security extensions from (checks google) 1996, restrict this.

Wait, what ? X11 has extensions ? As in can be "extended" ? And has the same thing since ( for the sake of dialogue) 1996 ? That't why it must die. We need a monolith window system, with clear versions, all incompatible with each other. Only then, real progress can be made. /s