KDE logout options with F8

[Richi Plana]

On Thu, 2007-11-01 at 11:20 +0100, Christopher Aillon wrote:
> Or maybe they just unchecked both because the words "GNOME" and "KDE" 
> mean nothing to them, coming from a win/mac background.  Or maybe they 
> aren't used to their trackpad's behavior under linux and uncheck one of 
> them (both aren't checked by default, IIRC) accidentally.  If the user 
> is truly advanced enough, there are other and IMO better ways to get the 
> exact package set that they want.  Such as kickstart, re-spinning, etc.

Now that's being silly. So the only reason Gnome and KDE can both be
unchecked is so that people with butterfingers get a chance to
accidentally do it??? That if expert users want only X, they'll click on
only X to find X + something and must actually respin? Then what's that
option for?

Let's look at cases where the user knows what they're doing:

Users who want only X include students who want to try programming
directly for X Windows, perhaps as part of a Comp Sci course. Or
embedded software devices who wish to create their own X widgets or base
it off of others (other than GTK+ and qt) and don't want to clutter up
their install. But whatever it is, if the option boxes say "no Gnome"
and "no KDE", that, to me, means just plain old X.

If a user select X + KDE, then they should get KDM. If a user selects X
+ KDE + Gnome, then they should get KDM and GDM installed with GDM
active. If they select X + Gnome, then they should get GDM.

Which user who intentionally wants only X would want GDM (and the libs
it pulls in)?

Now let's look cases where the user ends up with a configuration out of
ignorance or carelessness:

In the case where GDM is installed, they get a nice log in screen with
all the bells and whistles, log in to an xedit window managed by TWM. If
XDM is installed, they log in to pretty much the same thing. Either way,
the accident-prone user is at a loss. BETTER to have a warning during
install-time that no advanced Desktop Environment (explain what it is,
if necessary) and ask if the install should proceed.

As I said, I think this thread is getting silly. There are certain
expectations as to the results of installation choices. I've already
outlined them above. Let's not sacrifice those for unintentional
scenarios.

If it's technical issues that keep it from happening, then it's best to
discuss that and figure out how to overcome them (and how much priority
they'll be given) for F9.

Respins are for when the default distro cannot reasonably satisfy the
chosen valid use-cases. In this case, there's just no reason to pass it
off to respinning.
--

Richi Plana