On Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:46:47 +0200
Pascal Bleser
.... People with at least a bit of experience with Linux know that there's KDE3 and KDE4, and that they're not the same at all (certainly more in common as with GNOME or other DEs/WMs but still). At least I know that what I would expect from any distro is to be able to choose directly between KDE4, KDE3 and GNOME. Also, an additional step+click in the workflow should be avoided if possible, from an ergonomics' perspective.
I agree. Keeping the flow short and sweet is definitely the way to go, one of the most common complaints with 10.3 was that the install took too long and had too many steps (personally I didn't think so).
I don't to launch the debate again (at least not as a flame war), but the order *is* important. Using alphabetical order is an excuse. The reality is that what most people who don't already have a preference infer from the order of options there is that the top item is the "standard" and best supported desktop environment on openSUSE.
And please, please, please don't interpret this as a flame, as it isn't, but the openSUSE desktop environment survey showed that >70% are using KDE(3) and while it might still be a reluctant memory effect from SUSE/S.u.S.E. times, my gut feeling is that KDE is still better supported as of now (not to disregard the good work and heavy involvement of the GNOME devs and packagers towards openSUSE since over half a year). But, of course, I might be wrong :)
How about [ ] KDE 4 [ ] GNOME [ ] KDE 3 ?
Arguably, that order also goes from the least stable on top to the most stable at bottom. Not 100% sure that makes sense either.
I'm just absolutely certain of one thing: it's stupid to have political aspects (as it happened the previous time this question was raised, at least IMHO) being the reason to decide for one or the other. It must be considered from an honest point of view for the good of the end-users installing openSUSE. The option giving them the least headaches should be the #1 on the list, as it's most likely to be picked by those who have no idea what KDE/GNOME/XFCE/... is and just want to "try Linux".
How about [ ] KDE 3 [ ] GNOME [ ] KDE 4 ?
But clearly, I might be completely wrong here (except on the paragraph above), as I didn't use GNOME since years and haven't had the time to have a real shot at KDE4 recently.
I have always associated KDE with SUSE regardless of incarnation or spelling of the distro. There are also a lot of linux savvy people that also have the same association, unfortunately the media is getting pretty lazy nowadays and need a bit of help. I would certainly agree to have the order as: []KDE4 []GNOME []KDE3 This does give a bit of weight to KDE4 over it's older sibling, but that is kind of wanted (in my eyes). KDE3 wont be around for much longer, and I think it would be best for the KDE devs to have more bug reports on 4 than 3. Regards, Andy -- Andrew Wafaa, openSUSE Member: GNOME Team. awafaa@opensuse.org | http://opensuse.org/GNOME openSUSE: Get It, Discover It, Create It at http://www.opensuse.org http://www.wafaa.eu --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-factory+help@opensuse.org