Question about x11 and wayland

[faster1]

I moved to Linux just this week, so forgive my noob questions. I'm running Kubuntu 24.04 on my x570 system with an RTX 4070. I installed the proprietary Nvidia 535 drivers, and noticed that settings -> about this system shows I'm using X11. Now, I understand very little about what either X11 or Wayland actually are but I thought I read online that Ubuntu uses Wayland now. Does the Nvidia driver revert me back to X11? Should I move to Wayland? What's up with this?

[claydoh]

X11 is a display server, and independent on the desktop. It is very old tech, but still in good working order, but its age and modern display stuff will eventually relegate it to the side burner more than it already is.
Now, the people who used to work on X11 created its eventual replacement, called Wayland. It isn't a server, but a protocol that is implemented by a window manager/compositor. Mutter for Gnome, Kwin for Plasma, as well as others. So there is no separate display server running as root here.

Gnome, as well as Plasma 6 do default to using Wayland, but x11 is still available as a login option.
Plasma 5 defaults to x11. Kubuntu doesn't include the wayland session as an option out of the box for some reason (most distros with Plasma 5 or 6 include both).
You just need to install plasma-workspace-wayland to add it as a session choice at your login screen.

As to what you should use, that is up to what works best for you.
Plasma+Nvidia+Wayland still seems to be a crap shoot. Gnome is a bit better, as it has been working on this longer.
Plasma 6 appears to be better, and the proprietary nvidia drivers seem to improve things with every new version, except when it breaks things lolol

So....you can give it a whirl, and if it sucks for you, just log out and back into x11

Probably unless you have a 2-in- 1 convertible and like to have screen auto rotate and like some sort of gesture support, or use multiple monitors with different refresh rates, you are just fine on x11.
If you were using an AMD GPU, or intel, I'd say go with Wayland, you probably won't notice anything.
Nvidia, being the usual sticks in the mud, just makes things harder, even on X11.

[faster1]

Thank you so much for your detailed answer! I'll give it a shot.

[faster1]

X11 is a display server, and independent on the desktop. It is very old tech, but still in good working order, but its age and modern display stuff will eventually relegate it to the side burner more than it already is.
Now, the people who used to work on X11 created its eventual replacement, called Wayland. It isn't a server, but a protocol that is implemented by a window manager/compositor. Mutter for Gnome, Kwin for Plasma, as well as others. So there is no separate display server running as root here.

Gnome, as well as Plasma 6 do default to using Wayland, but x11 is still available as a login option.
Plasma 5 defaults to x11. Kubuntu doesn't include the wayland session as an option out of the box for some reason (most distros with Plasma 5 or 6 include both).
You just need to install plasma-workspace-wayland to add it as a session choice at your login screen.

As to what you should use, that is up to what works best for you.
Plasma+Nvidia+Wayland still seems to be a crap shoot. Gnome is a bit better, as it has been working on this longer.
Plasma 6 appears to be better, and the proprietary nvidia drivers seem to improve things with every new version, except when it breaks things lolol

So....you can give it a whirl, and if it sucks for you, just log out and back into x11

Probably unless you have a 2-in- 1 convertible and like to have screen auto rotate and like some sort of gesture support, or use multiple monitors with different refresh rates, you are just fine on x11.
If you were using an AMD GPU, or intel, I'd say go with Wayland, you probably won't notice anything.
Nvidia, being the usual sticks in the mud, just makes things harder, even on X11.

Well, I gave the wayland session a shot. It didn't work for me. I got a black screen with a floating Firefox window after logging out of x11, and into wayland. Maybe the Nvidia 535 drivers need to be updated for better wayland support. I see that newer ones are out, and read they have wayland features in them. I guess I'll try again after they get added to Kubuntu.

[shag00]

This is a bad period for NVIDIA card owners. In my opinion, if you own one of these cards the only real option is to wait and see if NVIDIA releases a good driver and avoiding Wayland. The latest Kubuntu version available from the standard repositories is 535 which lacks a number of features that newer versions have and still does not work as well as you might expect. The expensive option is an AMD card though they are not as well supported by many software programs and essentially rob you of some program features.

Despite wonderful claims for Wayland there is some discussion on some KDE boards that the 2 are roughly equivalent in terms of game performance. I think it likely that it will be 12-24 months before Wayland is as usable an X was 12 months ago.

The reason Kubuntu does not have a Wayland option at login is obvious and the same reason only NVIDIA version 535 is available in the standard repositories, that being, it just does not work at an acceptable level.