> Why aren't you using anything like wmctrl, xdotool, xprop, xbindkeys, xterm? Or non-Gnome DE? Don't you need custom keybindings for multiple keyboard layouts with caps/scroll led indication?

I have used Linux desktops for years and have quite literally never used any of those things (except for non-Gnome DE, which was slightly less "don't make me think" so I eventually went back to gnome). Yes, even xterm. Other tools might have been shelling out to those other utilities you mentioned for me, I guess?

Point is, there are at least some reasonable use cases that don't engage with that stuff. I truly don't know how much of the display stack of my current distro is X or Wayland-related code; I have never had reason to care. I don't have a dog in this particular fight, but there are lots of users who use Linux desktops not because they are customizable, modular, or whatever, but because a) it's a free OS, and b) it's similar to environments we target for development at our jobs. Despite the vocal-ness of customization advocates, I suspect that the vast majority of desktop Linux users are "dark matter" that fall into this category.

I've used Wayland and Gnome ever since they became available in Arch Linux, and I've never needed or missed any of those things. Yes early on there were some annoying bugs but this is life on the bleeding edge ;) These days it all just works.

There's a large group of users that goes to great lengths to customize their desktop experience. This kind of change understandably frustrates them. But it's important to understand that many of us just don't care very much.

Can it run gnome-terminal and Firefox? Can I switch resolutions and do multiple displays? That covers a vast majority of what I ever need from a graphical desktop. Beyond that I don't really care how the sausage is made.

I haven't touched any of those tools in a decade or more. I just haven't needed to? The Linux desktop is so much less demanding than it was through the 90s and early 2000s. You don't need to know about any of that stuff to make it work, to customize things, set your favorite key settings (e.g. making Caps Lock useful), to have reasonable hotkeys, etc.

I would argue that not having to use those tools to have a happy working environment makes it further advanced, rather than behind.

A lot of the things that Stack Overflow claims you need X tools for can also be accomplished using sysfs. Without knowing the details of what you're doing I can't give you any specifics.

I maintain an embedded Linux system which uses Wayland as a compositor for Qt. I use sysfs to EG turn off cursors and set the display mode so I can blit a splashscreen. And sysfs can be used to rotate the console, change display modes, etc..

On my desktop I don't use any of the tools you're listing and haven't needed then for almost 12 years. The wm handles that for me.

It's already usable. I use it every day.

I've been using Wayland as my...whatever it is (display server, window manager, thing) exclusively for the last year or so. I did hit this bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/1... but it was (eventually) fixed.

As for those other things you mention (xprop, etc.), I don't even know what they are, so I assume I've never used them.

I think you underestimate the degree to which desktop Linux users just want a working system with sane defaults. Maybe you personally value having all the knobs to twiddle, but I'd suggest you're an outlier.