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⇱ KDE Plasma 6.8 Still Planning To End X11 Support, 95% Of Plasma 6.6 Users Are On Wayland - Phoronix


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KDE Plasma 6.8 Still Planning To End X11 Support, 95% Of Plasma 6.6 Users Are On Wayland

Written by Michael Larabel in KDE on 2 June 2026 at 10:24 AM EDT. 434 Comments
KDE developers are sticking to their plans for Plasma 6.8 going Wayland-exclusive in dropping X11 support. Meanwhile it turns out 95% of current Plasma 6.6 users are running already on Wayland.

KDE developer David Edmundson authored a blog pot today outlining the latest preparations for Plasma's last X11-supported release with Plasma 6.7. With Plasma 6.8 later in the year, the Plasma X11 session support will be removed and a mass clean-up of X11-specific code can commence.

Plasma 6.8 aims to have all the X11-specific code removed while XWayland will continue to be supported for legacy X11 applications/games. Besides eliminating old X11-specific code, going Wayland-exclusive will allow them to open up more performance optimizations and other enhancements.

One of the most interesting takeaways from David's blog post today is word that over 95% of Plasma 6.6 users are running on Wayland. KDE metrics are showing a gradual increase every release

👁 Plasma Wayland 95% stat


Those wishing to learn more can see David Edmundson's blog post with the latest details on the plans for this year's removal of X11 support in KDE Plasma.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.