"Default" spin of Fedora

[Kevin Kofler]

---- Rahul Sundaram <sundaram at fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> The answer there would be Preupgrade. I have already filed a RFE to hook 
> this up with PackageKit.

While Preupgrade is certainly an interesting option for upgrades, I don't think it can replace traditional install media completely. As you're certainly well aware of, not all machines are directly connected to the Internet over a sufficiently fast connection. There are also other reasons to prefer traditional media.

> Considering that all indications are that majority of our users are 
> desktop users, I believe that is the correct choice to promote.

* But what desktop? The problem is that there are 2 (even 3 counting your XFCE spin, but unfortunately XFCE is currently not on the DVD either). A very significant percentage of the GNU/Linux user base are KDE users (most polls end up about 50-50 between GNOME and KDE). I also think that given the choice, several users completely new to GNU/Linux will try both and choose KDE. What some people in this thread want to do is hiding the choice and essentially forcing GNOME down the new users' throat. If you put a big "download Fedora here" link in a colored frame pointing to the GNOME spin and a tiny "see your other options here" fine print pointing to the list of spins, do you really think everyone will notice that the KDE spin and the DVD even exist? Hiding their choices doesn't help users at all.

* You're also ignoring the point I raised that software (_desktop_ software!) as popular as OpenOffice.org (!!!) is only available on the DVD (and in the repository, but you're well aware of the fact that many users need everything on their media for technical reasons such as (lack of) Internet connectivity).

        Kevin Kofler