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I impudently suggest that this type of program be renamed: Session Manager, since that is what is does: it initiates and manages sessions of different users. And while we are at it, Display server could also get a better name (because it also handles the input from evdev and not just the ouput to framebuffer), but I haven't come up with one yet (UserInteractionCore and MainUserInterfaceThingy are not better names).

Now jokes aside, the X (version 11) (a.k.a. X11) - display server - protocol is about to be replaced with the Wayland - display server - protocol. Some existing (X) window managers, like KWin and Mutter are on the way in becoming wayland compositors. Since the session manager a.k.a. the X display manager will likely also have to be ported from X11 to Wayland (I am assuming that because of the "X" in the naming), should the article be renamed and should we create a different article? ScotXW (talk) 20:15, 22 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The session manager is started by the display manager. They are completely different. Also the window manager is not a display manager. None of these concepts directly translate to wayland.174.29.193.158 (talk) 23:56, 29 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

References to this topic in the main article needs to be updated although of course years after these comments were originally posted, today the Display Manager still exists and will not be renamed. But, it should be noted that today deploying an X server for both local and remote connections is likely optional. At least one current TigerVNC deployment configuration (Multi-user) replaces the X server with a socket-based service which spawns individual network connections on demand. It's my understanding also that local X support, particularly for Wayland implements Unix sockets, replacing the X server. Putztzu (talk) 18:26, 27 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I understand why the merge has been proposed: as the articles currently stand, XDM contains little that is not in X window manager. However, it seems that other window managers have their own articles, and that the XDM article could possibly be expanded. I therefore disagree with the merge. - Liberatore(T) 09:17, 21 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I also oppose merging as the display manager has nothing in common with the window manager. The biggest difference is that the window manager is a user task and the display manager is a system task. 174.29.193.158 (talk) 23:59, 29 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:XDM which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RFC bot 21:31, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

this is obsolete. 174.29.193.158 (talk) 00:03, 30 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

One cannot move from using the word "server" to "Xserver" in the description.

Servers must have clients. Roles of servers and clients can alternate, but they should be clear.

An Xserver is a daemon/service running on which machine? What other daemons are running and where? What other clients are running and where?

Connections across remote media, using TCP/IP for e.g. must be clear.

The only people who will understand this article are experts who already understand.

It needs to be clearly explained as it is both crucial and complex. How else can we get interactions with Operating Systems without GUI consoles? In the future Cloud Technologies, it will become absolutely essential to have good remote GUIs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.9.13.234 (talk) 14:53, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Some of the negatives are either ancient news or due to xdm / xdmcp misconfiguration (and unix networking mis-configuration). Note for passwords XDM uses pam(1) or login(1) and it can't be intercepted locally - only if you use X to transport over a remote connection. XDM always uses a DES encryption for the key for X. Yea X is a standard unix networking app and like any should be either openssl secured or configured or ssh secured. But it's not a big deal for most people what XDM and X do is good enough without the extra site-specific security configuration headaches. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.177.175.218 (talk) 10:58, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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This source suggests it be renamed Graphical login manager. In my opinion, such name is much clearer. What do you think? genium ⟨✉⟩ 21:27, 3 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

IMO it's not for the Wikipedia community to rename anything, conventional nomenclature by people who use the technology should always be accepted and used consistently. Putztzu (talk) 18:36, 27 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

How about merging this thread with #Rename: Session Manager? They are both talking about rename of the title. --Franklin Yu (talk) 05:55, 4 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Am surprised to see SDDM listed as "Active" Am not modifying the article itself because don't know what "Active" is supposed to mean. SDDM has never supported XDMCP and RFB which means remote desktop apps like VNC are not supported... Whereas perhaps every "Inactive" DM does support. Putztzu (talk) 18:10, 27 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Will remove as in https://github.com/sddm/sddm/issues/1069 and https://github.com/sddm/sddm/issues/1180 are closed because of inactivity instead of implementation.

I'm the author of CDM. A while back, I changed my GitHub username (and my username pretty much everywhere) from ghost1227 to evertiro. Hence, the URL on the CDM link is incorrect. I attempted to update it myself, but it got flagged for advertising. Additionally, CDM is listed as inactive. It is... but it isn't. CDM still gets maintenance updates on occasion, but the lack of updates isn't due to inactivity, it's simply feature complete for what I originally intended. Since it has basically zero external dependencies, it doesn't require updates just because a dependency updates. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Evertiro (talk • contribs) 21:54, 17 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]