I cannot in good faith recommend Xlibre.
Why? Because its author has been spreading anti-vaxx lies and nazi propaganda on mailing lists for a little while now. The Xlibre README is also full of lies and dogwhistles.

In fact, let's waste 5 minutes of your time and analyze the README together!

@fun the creator of xlibre was also told by linus torvalds to shut up (https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/2106.1/04596.html):

> Get vaccinated. Stop believing the anti-vax lies.
>
> And if you insist on believing in the crazy conspiracy theories, at
> least SHUT THE HELL UP about it on Linux kernel discussion lists.

Xlibre is a fork of the Xorg Xserver with lots of code cleanups and enhanced functionality.

Code cleanups that actually break a lot of functionality: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/merge_requests/2019 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/merge_requests/2012 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/commit/538a6dd76feab02ab618d1c38e693a64b371cd66 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/merge_requests/2015 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/merge_requests/2014

This fork was necessary since toxic elements within Xorg projects, moles from BigTech, are boycotting any substantial work on Xorg, in order to destroy the project, to eliminate competition of their own products. Classic “embrace, extend, extinguish” tactics.

There is no big tech implied on this. The only thing is that most X11-knowlegable developers went to work on Wayland instead. That is why X11 is not super maintained these days, but it still gets fixes here and there.

This also means any major breaking work on X11 is hard to deal with, because of the low amount of time these maintainers would have these days. Especially when metux’s changes broke a lot of stuff (to the point of making other maintainers wonder if he actually tests his code at all https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/issues/1797#note_2799382)

[EDIT: Plus, if you hated bigtech so much why host your fork on GitHub?]

Right after journalists first began covering the planned fork Xlibre, on June 6th 2025, Redhat employees started a purge on the Xlibre founder’s GitLab account on freedesktop.org: deleted the git repo, tickets, merge requests, etc, and so fired the shot that the whole world heard.

This is where we really get into the straight up lies. Many red flags: for one, Red Hat was never involved in any of this. For two, the reason why metux got removed from the FDO GitLab is entirely because of Code of Conduct problems (understandable given metux’s background of spreading absurd anti-vaxx lies https://lkml.org/lkml/2021/6/10/957 and nazi propaganda https://web.archive.org/web/20190404153507/https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/message/20181010.191925.ee1331b6.en.html in mailing lists).

This is an independent project, not at all affiliated with BigTech or any of their subsidiaries or tax evasion tools, nor any political activists groups, state actors, etc. It’s explicitly free of any “DEI” or similar discriminatory policies. Anybody who’s treating others nicely is welcomed.

Well X11 is also somewhat independent.

When someone says their project is ‘free of Diversity Equity and Inclusion’ that is yet another red flag. “any of you can participate just don’t call it diversity equity and inclusion” (see where it’s getting?)

It doesn’t matter which country you’re coming from, your political views, your race, your sex, your age, your food menu, whether you wear boots or heels, whether you’re furry or fairy, Conan or McKay, comic character, a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri, or just a boring average person. Anybody who’s interested in bringing X forward is welcome.

According to this it would seem that anyone, even people with extremely controversal views are welcome. Another red flag!

Together we’ll make X great again!

And obviously a reference to “Make America Great Again (Trump quote)” at the end. Yet another red flag!

@hexaheximal yes, I am aware about all this stuff. I was writing the next post when you sent this :)

I've also been told by @ariadne (whom I trust) that Xlibre telegram/matrix channels are also just full of alt-right propaganda (https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/114717467792285512)

The lot of breakage introduced by metux in xorg-git while he was still allowed in also makes me extremely skeptical whether Xlibre will ever be a viable fork at all. Xlibre also forks all the X.org DDX drivers - those drivers require domain knowledge, if you do not have that you risk introducing bugs on these drivers, which could introduce either security issues, or completely broken graphics, or both, and that is not good™. (and we already saw metux breaking nvidia drivers before)

I do think an X11 fork or perhaps new X11 maintainers would be good, Xlibre is just not it.

All I see is a politics-driven complete fork of X11, backed by an angry someone kicked out of fdo on CoC grounds, twisting reality to target hate on Red Hat, X.Org and Wayland.

@fun I have heard the same thing from multiple people: If you want an X11 fork that has a lot of potential, look at what OpenBSD has been doing with xenocara.

That being said, though: I think it has gotten to the point now where Wayland is good enough that there isn't much of a need anymore for X11.

@hexaheximal Well a number of things (such as accessibility via screenreaders) are not so well working on Wayland (but it is constantly improving)

so I can see why you'd want to still rely on X11

The better way to fork X.Org, would be to only fork xserver, the modesetting DDX and xf86-input-libinput .. and have good knowledge on how X works. If you want to reduce technical debt that's where you should start: only support modesetting and libinput (why fork xorg-amdgpu?)

Alternatively, something interesting would be a tiny Wayland compositor just enough to run Xwayland and a regular x11 desktop on-top (which is what ariadne has been working on - https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/114719913043133783).

Xlibre is just a reactionary fork and I believe it will die within a few months. Nothing to see there, please move along 🙃.