Re: Reverting to GNOME for jessie's default desktop
It looks like this discussion gets somehow heated as could be expected.
My opinion is that it is impossible to decide which DE Debian should
suggest to its users. Because it highly depends on personal preferences;
what features are expected and, just as well, what much hated features
must not be present at all; how the user uses the computer and what the
user is familiar with.
My wish is to make this a user decision and to make this decision as
easy to the user as possible. Like Joel Rees I *believe* to remember
that I was once quite surprised when I choose the easy installation and
then could not choose my preferred DE. Whatever installation method a
user chooses, when the user chooses to include a DE then the user
should be asked which one. That's what I wish from the installer. (Of
course short, "neutral" descriptions would be fine, hints depending on
the hardware found by the installer would be fine too. But that depends
on whether somebody has time and interest to do the work.) This would
also include a default that is chosen when the user ignores the
question. I have no preference on that default.
This approach would fit the Debian philosophy and would work with
net-install as well as complete DVD/CD-sets.
This question of the default DE should be separated from the question
of space limited install media. To have different images for different
DE's would be fine but would probably put too much burden on the team
that creates the images. XFCE or a stripped down version of Gnome
should both be ok for that case.
Cheers
Werner
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