FEL Spin: Switching to Gnome(desktop ks)

[Chitlesh GOORAH]

Hello there,

During the Spin session at FUDCon Berlin, I expressed my intention to
switch FEL spin from kde-based to gnome-based. I have already made the
necessary changes to FEL's kickstart file.

https://fedorahosted.org/spin-kickstarts/changeset/5138977598e9845f53efc8b10e853036e3268fa6

My tests were successful and I am pleased with it.

== Reason for the switch ==

Simple, my laptop (only machine I have) struggles a lot with KDE4. I
am a KDE user and even a KDE booth staff for CEBIT 2007 in Germany. If
I personally cannot test and qualify the spin before the release, we
can't ship it.

== What does it mean for the Spin SIG ==

Nothing particularly as the dependency of the FEL spin is switched to
the default Fedora Desktop kickstart.

== What does it mean for the User ==

The users are the only one which will see the difference. But since
Fedora Developers spent a lot of resources on the desktop livecd (+
the fedora features) compared to the KDE upstream project, FEL users
will benefit with better power management, better boot time, better
distribution integration and any items from the fedora feature list.

== What does it mean for the spin maintainer ? ==

Nothing particularly. It is just a one-line change in FEL's ks. Since
the dependency is heavily tested by the Fedora QA team, I can focus
only on the goals/objectives of FEL.

Since, FEL apps are added to comps, it is even easier for me to
maintain the spin.

https://fedorahosted.org/spin-kickstarts/browser/fedora-livedvd-electronic-lab.ks


I am personnally affected by this switch, since I have never used
Gnome before. However the objective is not about whether gnome or kde
is good, how to focus on the electronic ASIC design methodologies
which opensource software can provide. That said, desktop environments
such as LXDE and XFCE are automatically discarded for FEL (at least
for the next 2/3 fedora releases) since
* Fedora XFCE spin's history shows it was either not ready for the
official fedora release or not released
* Fedora LXDE spin is new and the first official fedora board approved
spin will most probably be for F-12.

As a spin maintainer, I care a lot about the spin's dependencies. If
the dependencies failed, FEL will not be released.

I am sorry for any inconvenience that may cause you however if you
want to help us, please have a look at this dynamic todo list:
https://fedorahosted.org/fedora-electronic-lab/report/1


I want to thank RexDieter and KevinKofler for their tremendous help
since the beginning. Rex worked hard on optimizing KDE before F-11
release, at that time I was already seriously considering the switch.
Rex's optimization worked for me and thereby FEL 11 was KDE based.


Kind regards,
Chitlesh
PS: Please do not consider this post as KDE bashing. Our Fedora KDE
team are working very hard behind it.