Abandon "Default Desktop"

[Alex Hudson]

Hi Kevin,

Kevin Kofler wrote:
> The idea is that by selecting GNOME, you'd get GNOME apps as the default
> apps (of course, there's still the question whether to use OO.o and Mozilla
> apps or the official GNOME defaults, but that's already subject for debates
> right now, and both the current DVD defaults of OO.o + Firefox + Evolution
> and the current live CD defaults of Abiword + Firefox + Evolution are a mix
> of that), by selecting KDE, you'd get KDE apps (KOffice, kdepim, Konqueror)
> as the default.

I think you've slightly misunderstood my point. The apps and selections 
are not really an issue. My point is that if there is a case for 
presenting users with download options to fine-tune the initial set of 
software to be installed, it seems that there are more important 
software choices to present than between desktops - browser, office 
suite, e-mail client, etc. If you're using a desktop you're likely to be 
spending much more time in those apps than the "desktop".

Choice of DE seems to me relatively unimportant compared to the choice 
of productivity apps present on the system, and I don't see why the DE 
should be promoted to a special status for what seem to be essentially 
political reasons rather than technical ones. Even if you accept that 
the choice is useful, I don't see why you'd start with the DE.

Cheers,

Alex.