Kicksecure is finally switching to Wayland

[TheDoc]

Not super new news but I just found that a Kicksecure/Whonix developer announced the following on their forum:

• Non-Qubes: Kicksecure (and Whonix, which is based on Kicksecure):
  • Has been ported to Wayland.
  • Port from Xfce to LXQt has been completed. (Related: LXQt - Wayland support)
  • This is due for release together with the initial release of Whonix 18. There’s no estimated time of arrival but we’re very close.
• Qubes version:
  • This is up to Qubes. See Qubes upstream ticket: Use Wayland instead of X11 to increase performance and improve security · Issue #3366 · QubesOS/qubes-issues · GitHub

Kicksecure 18 (based on Debian Trixie) hasn’t been released yet but they’re supposedly very close. There are a few unresolved quirks which make me think its probably still weeks or months away. It’s still great news since X11 was one of the main concerns with Kicksecure/Whonix and I haven’t seen any progress updates until now.

[KevPham (Kevin Pham)]

Older news but still a welcome one. I recall the developers of KickSecure being unusually hostile to Wayland after being on xfce for so long.

LXQT was the shocking change though. Does that mean the Qubes and Whonix may eventually migrate over to LXQT? I haven’t seen anything from my tester laptop that has it.

[KevPham (Kevin Pham)]

Okay so maybe I just need to update my templates

Per the Qubes OS weekly review discussion thread:

[… 30 lines elided]

• qubes-template-whonix-workstation-18 4.3.0-202510240827 (r4.3)
  qubes-template-whonix-gateway-18 4.3.0-202510240827 (r4.3)
  qubes-template-kicksecure-18 4.3.0-202510240827 (r4.3)

  • A fresh set of Whonix and Kicksecure 18 (testing) templates.

  • Based on upstream Debian 13 Trixie.

  • These templates use LXQt (instead of XFCE).