Wayland compositor
also: Wayland server, Wayland display server
A Wayland compositor is a display server that manages windows, input, and rendering for graphical applications using the Wayland protocol instead of the older X11 system.
A Wayland compositor replaces the traditional X11 display server with a simpler, more modern architecture. It acts as the intermediary between applications and your hardware, handling window management, input events (keyboard, mouse), and rendering to the display.
Unlike X11, Wayland compositors are more security-conscious and efficient—they can be embedded in desktop environments like GNOME (Mutter) or KDE Plasma (KWin), and they handle compositing directly, reducing latency and complexity.
Common examples include GNOME Shell, KDE's KWin, Sway (tiling), and Weston (reference implementation). When you log into a modern Linux desktop, you're typically starting a Wayland session that runs one of these compositors.