Hi, I'm not an Xubuntu developer, just an interested user (since the first Xubuntu release). <div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> I would be glad if as many people as possible on this list could give their opinion about the seeds[*], this way we could really call this an open development process...</blockquote><div> I would have said nothing, because I haven't contributed to Xubuntu yet, but when I'm ask: I like to have most apps optional. In all Xubuntu releases I've removed xubuntu-desktop after the upgrade or install and changed lot's of software to more capable ones. I do need OpenOffice, Firefox, mplayer, gqview and so on, and I have no use for the gnome office apps, epiphany, xfmedia, ristretto and so on. I did not feel any slow down in the last release. What keeps me away from Gnome is mostly Nautilus and all these Mono apps (f-spot, beagle, ...). They are really slow and I love to have thunar and most core xfce stuff. For example squeeze/file-roller: I only use a graphical tool for this if there is a plugin to use it from within thunar. If this is possible, then I don't care. For example screensaver. If it works and also works with Compiz which I use from time to time in Xubuntu: then I don't care. If not, guess what I will do: remove xubuntu-desktop and replace the screensaver with another one. If I could wish for something in Xubuntu, then it would be that you, the developers, would like to work *together* and continue to produce a great distribution (which it was in the last years, from my point of view). This would be much more worth than the actual decision on some apps, really. </div></div> Cheers, Stefan