diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index e0553f1be2945..a140f34ae1b4f 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -174,7 +174,6 @@ default = [
   "tonemapping_luts",
   "vorbis",
   "webgl2",
-  "x11",
   "wayland",
   "debug",
   "zstd_rust",
diff --git a/crates/bevy_internal/Cargo.toml b/crates/bevy_internal/Cargo.toml
index cf5bbfaabe83a..6cc93903f110c 100644
--- a/crates/bevy_internal/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/bevy_internal/Cargo.toml
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ multi_threaded = [
 ]
 async-io = ["std", "bevy_tasks/async-io"]
 
-# Display server protocol support (X11 is enabled by default)
+# Display server protocol support (Wayland is enabled by default)
 wayland = ["bevy_winit/wayland"]
 x11 = ["bevy_winit/x11"]
 
diff --git a/docs/cargo_features.md b/docs/cargo_features.md
index 2f4bbd95e5c0b..b718b66bdc2dc 100644
--- a/docs/cargo_features.md
+++ b/docs/cargo_features.md
@@ -62,7 +62,6 @@ The default feature set enables most of the expected features of a game engine,
 |vorbis|OGG/VORBIS audio format support|
 |wayland|Wayland display server support|
 |webgl2|Enable some limitations to be able to use WebGL2. Please refer to the [WebGL2 and WebGPU](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/tree/latest/examples#webgl2-and-webgpu) section of the examples README for more information on how to run Wasm builds with WebGPU.|
-|x11|X11 display server support|
 |zstd_rust|For KTX2 Zstandard decompression using pure rust [ruzstd](https://crates.io/crates/ruzstd). This is the safe default. For maximum performance, use "zstd_c".|
 
 ### Optional Features
@@ -147,5 +146,6 @@ The default feature set enables most of the expected features of a game engine,
 |web_asset_cache|Enable caching downloaded assets on the filesystem. NOTE: this cache currently never invalidates entries!|
 |webgpu|Enable support for WebGPU in Wasm. When enabled, this feature will override the `webgl2` feature and you won't be able to run Wasm builds with WebGL2, only with WebGPU.|
 |webp|WebP image format support|
+|x11|X11 display server support|
 |zlib|For KTX2 supercompression|
 |zstd_c|For KTX2 Zstandard decompression using [zstd](https://crates.io/crates/zstd). This is a faster backend, but uses unsafe C bindings. For the safe option, stick to the default backend with "zstd_rust".|
diff --git a/release-content/migration-guides/x11-no-longer-default.md b/release-content/migration-guides/x11-no-longer-default.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..07625f381f747
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release-content/migration-guides/x11-no-longer-default.md
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+---
+title: "X11 is no longer enabled by default"
+pull_requests: [21158]
+---
+
+X11 support is on the downturn, with other players like GTK announcing that
+they're considering deprecating X11 support in the next major release and
+Fedora 43 later this year is going to be Wayland only. With this in mind,
+the `x11` top level feature on the Bevy crate is no longer a default
+feature when building for Linux targets.
+
+If your project was already targeting Wayland-only systems, this is
+effectively a no-op and can safely be ignored.
+
+If you still require X.Org support, you can manually reenable the `x11`
+feature:
+
+```toml
+# 0.17
+[dependencies]
+bevy = { version = 0.17 }
+
+# 0.17
+[dependencies]
+bevy = { version = 0.17, features = ["x11"] }
+```