Abandon "Default Desktop"

Naheem Zaffar naheemzaffar at gmail.com
Tue Apr 28 15:48:45 UTC 2009


2009/4/28 "Jóhann B. Guðmundsson" <johannbg at hi.is>

>  For the record this thread is not about how they came to decide using
> Gnome
> as the default desktop environment back in the day.
>
> Nor is it about replacing the current default desktop with another one.
>
> It´s about dropping the Default Desktop concept altogether which will allow
> all the
> desktop environments to compete on a fair ground amongst them self's in the
> form
> of their corresponding live release thus improving innovation and further
> development in that area.
>
> This would aid Fedora in becoming the ideal development platform for both
> existing and emerging projects
> instead of hindrance where one application is chosen over the other one.
>
> Let the end user choose what he wants from all the bits we offer instead of
> saying "USE THESE BITS"
>
> So the question is this...
>
> Should we or should we not drop the Default Desktop concept?
>
> If we decided we will abandon default desktop concept only then we can
> start talking about what
> are the necessary steps to complete that task.
>
> JGB
>

I disagree that dropping a default desktop will be favourable in any way -
the whole point behind a distro is that it is coherent and *makes decisions*
about defaults and settings etc.

Not having a default is the same as it was a few years ago when multiple
distros and multiple packages for the same task were all installed, allowing
a person to make a "fair choice". What that really did was confuse new
users.

I like how far Fedora has come in this regard. (The one package by default
concept was pushed forward by Ubuntu and it was found to be so successful
that most distros are doing something similar.)

Forcing a choice at install time to uninformed users is plain bad usability.
Allowing those that are informed to change the defaults is the right way.

ftr, no one is saying "USE THESE BITS" as there are multiple spins, multiple
tick boxes etc and people know that they all allude to choice. which if they
knew better they may be able to partake in. But that should not be forced
onto them. Neither should experimentation - if people are using fedora in
production and the defaults work for them, why should they potentially mess
up their workflow to find something that may not work as well?
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