A Dive into Wayland Compositors

Wayland is a communication protocol that specifies the interaction between a display server and its clients. A display server using the Wayland protocol is known as a Wayland compositor, as it also performs the task of a compositing window manager.

Top Wayland Compositors #

Here are some of the top Wayland compositors as of 2023:

Sway #

Sway is a popular Wayland compositor due to its simplicity and configurability. It uses the wlroots library, which is focused on standards. However, it’s worth noting that Sway does not guarantee support for NVIDIA drivers.

Wayfire #

Wayfire stands out for its plugin approach, allowing for a lot of customizability. However, plugins require a working Wayfire to build, but with each update, the plugin may become incompatible and unbuildable.

Weston #

Weston is the reference implementation of a Wayland compositor. It has a good appearance with borders, buttons as expected of a stacking window manager. However, it is basic, less configurable and less compatible.

Hyprland #

Hyprland is known for its smooth animations. However, it’s still in its early development stages and has a few bugs and missing features.

Arcan #

Arcan stands out for its nice API for custom Window Managers. However, it requires configured Lua files, command line options, environment variables for it to work.

Conclusion #

Wayland compositors are an integral part of the Wayland protocol. They provide the interface between client applications and the display server. Each compositor has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice of which to use can depend on your specific needs and preferences. Whether you value simplicity and configurability like in Sway, or smooth animations like in Hyprland, there’s likely a Wayland compositor that’s right for you.