Rahul Sundaram wrote: >> I'm pretty sure the vast majority of users would choose KDE >> if they were given a clear choice. > > The vast majority of users wouldn't care about desktop environments at > all. Applications matter. The only people who argue about default choice > of desktop environments and text editors is technical users which is a > small minority. I don't think that's true at all. In my view the difference between KDE and Gnome is far more visible than the difference between different distributions. I cannot tell if one machine of mine is using Fedora + KDE or Kubuntu (both are installed) unless I look very carefully. I can see at once if the machine is running Gnome or KDE. > A installer cannot in any proper way hope to explain to end users what a > desktop environment or how to choose between them. A distribution's or > even individual application's job in most cases is to pick defaults > instead of pushing it to end users. Why? I don't mind being given simple choices, particularly if one is Recommended. Even car salesmen give you a choice of colour. Bill Gates gives me more choices than Anaconda. > If you really wanted KDE, you can download the the KDE Live image and > install it. I did in fact download the KDE Live Image, but it wasn't at all clear to me what it would do if I chose "Install on hard disk". Would it delete my /home partition? I'm pretty sure the people who could offer a radio button choice between Gnome and KDE actually push Gnome for political/philosophical reasons. I've found in different discussions of this point that after giving the "people don't like being given a choice" argument the same people usually go on to say why Gnome is morally preferable. -- Timothy Murphy e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366 s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
