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Graphics and the compositor

Wayland, the labwc compositor, and window decorations that look the same everywhere.

Display server: Wayland (Xwayland for older apps)

Why: Wayland is the modern standard. It gives better security (apps can't read each other's input or screen), no tearing, proper fractional scaling and mixed-DPI monitors. Xwayland runs the few remaining X11 apps transparently.

Alternatives: Mutter (GNOME), KWin (KDE), Sway, Hyprland, labwc, niri, writing our own on wlroots.
Why: Wayfire is packaged in Debian 13, supports the Wayland protocols Aurora Shell uses, and its animate plugin draws opening, closing, minimize and restore transitions for applications of any toolkit. The leaner labwc session stays available in the greeter and is started automatically if Wayfire cannot launch. Aurora Settings keeps the labwc XML as a shared preference source and renders a Wayfire INI on login and after changes.
- Mutter and KWin come bundled with their own shells.
- Sway and niri are tiling-first.
- Hyprland changes quickly and isn't in Debian.
- labwc is simpler and retains features such as custom third-width snap regions, but does not animate application windows.
- Writing a compositor would take years to reach labwc's robustness.
Trade-off: Wayfire's plugin system and GL renderer are more complex, especially in software-rendered virtual machines. Its server-side decorations do not use labwc's Aurora theme; GTK apps use their own Aurora-styled client-side header bars. Blur remains off by default. Choose “Aurora (labwc fallback)” at login if Wayfire misbehaves.

Choice: GTK apps use Aurora's styled client-side header bars. The generated labwc server-side theme remains available in the fallback session; Wayfire's non-GTK server-side decorations may differ.
Why: preserve Aurora's appearance for its own apps while using compositor-level animation across toolkits.