Re: Abandon "Default Desktop"

[Alex Hudson <fedora alexhudson com>]

(This thread seems to be circling around a lot without seemingly getting
anywhere... )

Adam Williamson wrote:
> The problem is that
> when you ask someone to make a choice without understanding the options,
> it tends to frustrate them. This is a well-observed phenomenon in all
> circles, certainly including computer user interface design.
>   

I think it's relatively important that there be a good "default" Fedora
as well as choice to change things later.

I personally find it a bit surprising that the choice of desktop
environment is thought of as being sufficiently important that there
should be no single "default". As a user, there are apps that are vastly
more important to me, and for which there is choice: e.g.,
OpenOffice.org vs. KOffice, Thunderbird vs. Evolution (vs. Kwhatever),
Firefox vs. Epiphany. I spend 90%+ of my time in my desktop using those
apps, not the desktop itself - Tbird is much, much more important to me
than the choice of DE.

Honestly, I could care less whether the default is GNOME or KDE. In all
likelihood, I wouldn't even notice the change. But it cannot be right
that every important end-user software choice is presented as a
different initial download option, all on equal terms, which seems to be
what the request is. DEs are not special in that regard.

Cheers,

Alex.