KDE Plasma 6.8 will be Wayland-only, shipping without support for running the popular Qt-based desktop on top of the legacy X display server.
Like GNOME, who ripped off the Xorg bandaid earlier this year, the change will not not mean X11 applications no longer work in Plasma 6.8. Legacy software will continue to run, as it does right now, on Wayland though the Xwayland compatibility layer.
But a Plasma X11 desktop session will no longer be provided.
No-one need panic as the change isn’t be taking place just yet. KDE is signposting this deprecation in advance: KDE Plasma 6.5 was released in October 2025 meaning Plasma 6.8 is not likely to be released until late 2026.
So there’s plenty of time to prepare.
‘No Immediate Impact’, Say KDE
“For most users, this will have no immediate impact,” the KDE team say, adding that the “majority of our users are already using the Wayland session, it’s the default on most distributions, and some of them have already dropped — or are planning to drop [X11 sessions].“
Case in point: Kubuntu 25.10 no longer includes X11 Plasma session by default (although users can reinstall it, unlike on Ubuntu 25.10 with GNOME 49 where no X11 session is available – which will be the case when KDE Plasma 6.8 is released in late 2027).
Why make the change? The same reason everyone is: progress. KDE say the change “opens up new opportunities for features, optimisations, and speed of development”.
“If we want to keep producing the best free desktop out there, we have to be nimble enough to adapt to a rapidly changing environment with many opportunities, without the need to drag forward legacy support that holds back a great deal of work.”
Wayland is not “new” at this point; many desktops and distros have been clear about their plans to transition to Wayland-only setups in time. There will never be a perfect time, and Wayland will never be everything to everyone.
X11 doesn’t cease to exist with this news. Those who can’t countenance computing without the decades-old tech in tow are not at a loss for options: many Linux distributions and desktops support (and plan to continue supporting) it.
Options (and optimism) are available
As stated at the outset: if you use KDE and rely (or prefer) a Plasma X11 session this change is coming, but it’s not happening right away.
Both KDE Plasma 6.6 and 6.7 are yet to be released, both of which continue to support X11 sessions. Per current plans, KDE will release a couple of ‘extra’ bug-fix releases to v6.7 to further its utility to those who can’t or won’t upgrade to 6.8, into 2027.
If you don’t need the latest version of Plasma, you don’t have to upgrade and lose X11 support in 2027. Use an older version on an LTS distro and ride it into the sunset.
Given that this is on the horizon though, it may help to be optimistic and proactive: if there are specific issues that you’re avoiding Wayland for, report or engage upstream as they could end up being resolved or mitigated by the time this change rolls around.