Wayland vs. Xorg/X11

For a long time, Linux has used something called Xorg (X11) to power its desktop graphics. It worked well enough, but it was designed decades ago - long before modern features like variable refresh rate (VRR), and multi-monitor setups were common. Because of this, X11 has some limitations. For example, if you plug in two monitors with different refresh rates (say 120 Hz and 60 Hz), both monitors will get locked to the lower one. Multi-monitor support in general is more of a workaround than true support.

Wayland is the newer system built to replace X11. It’s designed for modern hardware and fixes many of these old problems. With Wayland:

• Monitors with different refresh rates work properly side by side.
• Variable refresh rate is supported.
• Multi-monitor setups are handled cleanly, without old hacks.

This makes Wayland the better option for most people moving forward.

That said, it’s not perfect yet. Some features can still be tricky. For example, global hotkeys (shortcuts that work even when an app isn’t active) don’t always behave as expected, unless your desktop environment or window manager supports them. Also, NVIDIA graphics cards have historically had weaker support on Wayland compared to AMD, though NVIDIA has been improving quickly.

Usually, this doesn't need to be tinkered with too much. Most Linux distributions let you choose between X11 and Wayland at the login screen. If you run into issues with one, you can switch to the other without much hassle.

update

Fedora and ArchLinux no longer ship x11 support by default for KDE Plasma. Gnome has dropped support for x11 with it being disabled in 49, and 50 outright removing support. KDE Plasma has announced the removal of x11 support will happen in 6.27 which mean some where in 2027 Kde plasma will no longer support x11. There are other Desktop Environments for x11 however the writing is on the wall.