[ubuntu-studio-devel] gnome vs kde (regarding: The problem with gnome)

[erich at ericheickmeyer.com]

On Wed, 2018-05-16 at 18:00 +0200, Alexandru Băluț wrote:
> You make this sound like I'm upset that you did not choose Gnome3. I
> have no idea what process you guys followed to choose the default DE,
> so I have nothing to say about that. Has this process been documented
> BTW? Just curious. I have no idea what are these "alternate DEs" you
> mentioned, I'll go read about it. 

There's a few questions to answer here. First of all, our default DE is
Xfce. It was chosen back in 2010 (long before many of us became
involved) because its function was familiar to users of GNOME 2 at the
time (MATE wasn't yet a thing) since that was the DE. That is, simply
put, the reason it was chosen.

With MATE being matured, we decided to explore DEs again, but through
many IRC conversations and conversations in this very mailing list, we
have decided to keep Xfce as default for now. If you have a default,
all other DEs are alternatives, so that's where the term "alternative
DE" came from. As an example, Ubuntu is the main operating system, the
flavors (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu
Kylin, and Ubuntu Studio) are all alternatives to the main Ubuntu.

> I replied because I see Len has a bad image about GNOME's team, which
> is false. Do you agree with what he said below? 
> - The attitude seems to be away from the user having things the way
> they like and more to the we provide a finished product that "we know
> is best for you".
> - gnome tends to tell you "this is whats good for you eat it."
> - I am not sure what happened to "the user is right" in gnome's mind,
> but it sure gone.

That's Len's opinion, and he's not the only one with that opinion at
this time. My friend and long-time GNOME user Noah Chelliah of the Ask
Noah Show (asknoahshow.com) has also come out and spoken with a similar
sentiment, as has Alan Pope of Canonical (he did so on an episode of
the Linux Unplugged podcast, which I am unable to link at this time). I
am sure the GNOME team's intentions are good, but for some people it's
simply not a vision they want to follow. So, that's the perception.

But, if you continue this discussion, it's just going to go in circles.
 We understand your passion, but at some point this discussion needs to
stop simply because it will go nowhere. I know you have the best of
intentions (as do we), but keeping this discussion going would be
futile.


Thanks,
Erich
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