<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8"> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.26.0"> </HEAD> <BODY> Thank you Sean, you have given a good balanced reply! I was generalising instead of forcing my POV! But you have raised some good points, I myself am a GNOME user but it wasn't always that way, quite a few years back when I was tinkering with Red Hat (8) I was a KDE die hard (um if you called someone that insisted on dual booting a die hard!) anyway... I only started using GNOME once I started to use Ubuntu, although I have had KDE 4.x installed at some points, I've tended to always gravitate back to GNOME.  Again this is the advantage of that "Freedom" we have a Linux users! I suppose to that for the developers of a given desktop environment it's really a case of maintaining some "Identity" after all this is what makes each of them unique. I suppose where I was attempting to come from when I mentioned "too much choice" I was thinking more of the "Marketing" aspect, that is if you had to select say the 10 best things about Linux some of us wouldn't hesitate to answer! but this really does come back to what you use your Linux for, some would only want to use it because they can! but then you also have it where some of us use Linux because we choose to! there is a big difference in those two cases. As to "Big question. How could this 'merge' happen?" Hmm... that I think is going to be difficult although there is a fair amount of cross compatibility between GNOME & KDE but its not to the level that you have mentioned though. <TABLE CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" WIDTH="100%"> <TR> <TD> Scott Evans VK7HSE Phone: +61362291658 Mobile: +61417586157 Skype: vk7hse <A HREF="mailto:scott@vk7hse.hobby-site.org">scott@vk7hse.hobby-site.org</A> <A HREF="http://www.vk7hse.hobby-site.org/">http://www.vk7hse.hobby-site.org</A> PGP/GPG Key ID 6949D271 <IMG SRC="cid:1242800619.23219.106.camel@scott-desktop" ALIGN="bottom" BORDER="0"> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> -- This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. </BODY> </HTML>