On Tue, 2006-06-06 at 20:16 -0500, Rex Dieter wrote: > Andy Goss wrote: > > On Tue, 2006-06-06 at 14:05 +0100, Mike Cohler wrote: > >> I see that there is a long thread in fedora-devel about whether to > >> push KDE out into extras. There are a lot of people out there (Linus T > >> for one !) who feel that KDE should be part of the OS. I would hate > >> to see KDE pushed out of the core. > >> > >> What do you think ? > > > Why alienate your most enthusiastic users? Who else is going to > > recommend your distro? > > > > If FC did not support KDE, which in FC4 at least it does rather well for > > my purposes, I would not be using FC at all. There are plenty of KDE > > distros around. > > Why do you conclude that KDE -> Extras implies that FC does not support > KDE? I would argue that support for KDE will improve by the move. > > -- Rex > If KDE is not there up front with no quibbles for new users then it will only be used by stroppy old users. The relative usage will move to GNOME and then "Oh look, KDE is sliding, ditch it." This is an old trick that has been used in many companies (not just IT) where for various reasons somebody does not like one product and wants it done away with even though it sells well. This is more a marketing than a technical issue. A new user will generally take the default, on the supposition that it will be the easiest to get to grips with. Then they will go on using it, even if something else might suit them better. I began with the default GNOME but moved to KDE when I found that Kate fitted my requirements better than Gedit. Both have merits, but KDE has, for me, more. My children run GNOME quite quite happily, it suits their purposes. KDE suits mine, we need both, and others, as up-front options, not add-ons for geeks. Andy Goss
