Wayland’s original promise was a cleaner, safer foundation for Linux desktops, one that could finally stop inheriting decades of X11 baggage. The pitch was modern graphics without the historical quirks, smoother rendering with fewer hacks, and better isolation so one app could not casually snoop on another. It also implied a future where screen sharing, scaling, and input handling would be solved in a way that felt native, not bolted on. In other words, Wayland was supposed to be the grown-up table where the desktop could finally eat without spilling.