Introducing Wawona: a nested Wayland compositor for macOS

Unknown — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Correction (2026-08-25).</strong> This post is the Feb 2026 intro. Product facts now: CalVer (not older 0.x tags). The full Apple family plus Android and Linux. VMs and containers are planned Machine types (forbidden on tvOS/watchOS). macOS Classic Desktop Replacement exists on the desktop-host build; LockScreen greeter and Android Home are still coming soon. iOS/iPadOS Desktop via repo.wawona.io (not the App Store app). Wawona Swinging Bridge is a separate planned app bridge. tvOS GPU is available (OpenGL ES via ANGLE and Vulkan via MoltenVK, both to Metal). Graphics libs live in wwn-*</code> flake inputs. See docs</a> and FAQ</a>.</p>

Wawona is a native Wayland compositor for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, visionOS, Android, and Linux. The compositor talks Wayland. The pixels go out through Metal, Vulkan, or a CPU/SHM fallback.</p>

Why</h2> On a Mac, the usual way to run Wayland apps was a virtual machine or a slow emulator. Wawona implements the compositor in Rust and draws with the platform GPU APIs, so a Linux Wayland client can show up as a native window. You can still start a VM or container Machine when you want a guest OS.</p> How it is built</h2> Rust core</h3> One backend owns protocol state, surfaces, and input. Host UI is SwiftUI/ObjC, JNI/Compose, or GTK. UniFFI exists in src/ffi</code>. It is not the only bridge.</p> Native graphics</h3> Userspace DRM/KMS/GBM is wwn-iland</code>. Apple GPU targets use Metal (IOSurface). Android uses AHardwareBuffer. watchOS has no public Metal (GPU blocked). tvOS GPU is available: OpenGL ES via ANGLE and Vulkan via MoltenVK, both to Metal.</p> Nix</h3> macOS, the iOS family, Android, and Linux each want their own SDK. Nix builds the Rust core and C libraries from sibling wwn-</code> inputs (wwn-toolchain</code> substrate, wwn-iland</code> graphics, Weston, Niri, waypipe).</p> Other platforms</h2> The same core ships across the Apple family and Android. Nested Weston and Niri are mandatory bundles on every product target.</p> Try it</h2> CalVer builds: Download</a>, TestFlight via Discord, or GitHub v</code> assets. Start with the docs</a> or the FAQ</a>.</p>

Wawona - Posts

Introducing Wawona: a nested Wayland compositor for macOS

How it is built</h2>

Rust core</h3>
One backend owns protocol state, surfaces, and input. Host UI is SwiftUI/ObjC, JNI/Compose, or GTK. UniFFI exists in `src/ffi</code>. It is not the only bridge.</p>`

`Other platforms</h2> The same core ships across the Apple family and Android. Nested Weston and Niri are mandatory bundles on every product target.</p>Try it</h2> CalVer builds: Download</a>, TestFlight via Discord, or GitHub v*</code> assets. Start with the docs</a> or the FAQ</a>.</p>`

Try it</h2>
CalVer builds: Download</a>, TestFlight via Discord, or GitHub `v*</code> assets. Start with the` `docs</a> or the FAQ</a>.</p>`

Wawona - Posts

Introducing Wawona: a nested Wayland compositor for macOS

How it is built</h2>

Rust core</h3> One backend owns protocol state, surfaces, and input. Host UI is SwiftUI/ObjC, JNI/Compose, or GTK. UniFFI exists in src/ffi</code>. It is not the only bridge.</p>

Other platforms</h2> The same core ships across the Apple family and Android. Nested Weston and Niri are mandatory bundles on every product target.</p> Try it</h2> CalVer builds: Download</a>, TestFlight via Discord, or GitHub v*</code> assets. Start with the docs</a> or the FAQ</a>.</p>

Try it</h2> CalVer builds: Download</a>, TestFlight via Discord, or GitHub v*</code> assets. Start with the docs</a> or the FAQ</a>.</p>

Rust core</h3>
One backend owns protocol state, surfaces, and input. Host UI is SwiftUI/ObjC, JNI/Compose, or GTK. UniFFI exists in `src/ffi</code>. It is not the only bridge.</p>`

`Other platforms</h2> The same core ships across the Apple family and Android. Nested Weston and Niri are mandatory bundles on every product target.</p>Try it</h2> CalVer builds: Download</a>, TestFlight via Discord, or GitHub v*</code> assets. Start with the docs</a> or the FAQ</a>.</p>`

Try it</h2>
CalVer builds: Download</a>, TestFlight via Discord, or GitHub `v*</code> assets. Start with the` `docs</a> or the FAQ</a>.</p>`