JetBrains users wondering when Wayland support might land should check out the latest ‘Early Access Program’ (EAP) builds released earlier this month – Wayland preview, ahoy!
At present, all of JetBrains’ IntelliJ-based IDEs on Linux run in a Wayland session use XWayland (the X server compatibility mode for software lacking native Wayland support).
XWayland works well enough that most people can’t tell the difference. That’s great. Still, in not taking full advantage of the benefits Wayland offers, there’s potential untapped.
Which is why the latest JetBrains 2024.2 EAP builds are an exciting update. They make it possible to use IntelliJ IDEA et al with pure Wayland support — albeit “preliminary”.
Benefits of this? A few:-
- No more blurry UI on systems with fractional scaling enabled
- Faster screen updates during scrolling, resizing, and interaction
- Slow pace periods that dial down screen updates during idle periods
- Improved multi-monitor support/handling of pop-ups, dialogs, and windows
However, this is a preview release and not finished. There are gaps and quirks (no input method support, drag and drop not working, inconsistent window decorations), and quirks, bugs, and broken parts should be expected.
JetBrains say the Wayland builds still use software-only rendering but a Vulkan backend in active development to provide hardware-acceleration. Chances are that’ll land in a future EAP update, if you’re happy to keep both a stable and EAP build around.
You also need to manually configure the software to bypass the XWayland compatibility layer in favour of a ‘pure Wayland’ experience by adding -Dawt.toolkit.name=WLToolkitto the Custom VM Options… section.
File bugs/issues on the JetBrains YouTrack, which is where you can also track development of other features planned for the Wayland era of IntelliJ IDEs.
Getting IntelliJ IDEA EAP
Not all of JetBrains’ software is free to use, and access to EAP builds is sometimes restricted to those with an active ‘ultimate’ subscription. An IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition exists (reduced features, but open-source) though I’m not 100% sure if this EAP is available for it.
If you have the bandwidth, perhaps install the official JetBrains IntelliJ Community Edition snap from the beta channel and let me know
But the full-fat IntelliJ IDEA 2024.2 EAP with Wayland support can be downloaded and used for free on macOS, Windows, and Linux (including WSL) for 30 days. No registration or payment details need, and enough time to kick the tyres and see if it’s for you.
Linux users can download JetBrains EAP builds from the ‘next version’ section of the website.
Also, students and teachers are eligible for free JetBrains license, just register with a real academic e-mail address. Similarly, non-commercial open-source projects can get free licenses if they meet the (fairly reasonable) criteria.
If you’re cool with riding the bleeding edge, and wish to check it out, go ahead – just pop back and let me (and others) know how things compare to the existing version down in the comments.