KDE announced that Plasma 6.8 will remove X11 session support entirely, marking the end of a 15-year transition period. The X11 session has been officially removed from the login screen, and all X11-specific code paths in Plasma Shell, System Settings, and device configuration will be cleaned up. This change takes effect when Plasma 6.8 releases in approximately five months.

The shift consolidates development efforts onto a single Wayland code path, eliminating the need to maintain dual implementations. XWayland support remains intact, allowing users to continue running X11 applications without interruption. KDE applications will function normally on other desktop environments, and the Plasma Login Manager still supports X11 sessions for alternative desktops.

Internal KDE metrics show over 95% of Plasma 6.6 users have already migrated to Wayland, with minimal active development on X11 remaining. Crash reporting data from Sentry aligns with these adoption figures. Including legacy Plasma 5.27 users, total Wayland adoption reaches approximately 76%, reflecting the natural progression since Wayland became the default session type.

Plasma 6.7, releasing shortly, represents the final version with X11 support. Users experiencing Wayland issues are encouraged to report problems before the transition. The move enables performance improvements, memory optimizations, and new features previously blocked by the dual-session architecture. This consolidation simplifies development while maintaining compatibility through XWayland.