GNOME as the default desktop (was Re: Fedora Board Meeting Minutes - 2010-12-06)

[Jeff Spaleta]

On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 12:13 PM, Bill Nottingham <notting at redhat.com> wrote:
> This is in the realm of 'upstream design decisions should be arbitrarily
> decided, debated, and reverted via Fedora'. I'm not sure that's a
> generally good tack to take.

This and other specific issues are just symptomatic of a larger issue.
The role of _distributions_  as a conduit to deliver interfaces
designed  by upstream projects.  There is a real and increasing
tension about the expectation and responsibility of that role as
upstream projects start thinking more about designing a specific
deliverable user experience instead of just a collection of framework
technologies.

And its not just GNOME. The not so pleasant discussion concerning
Meego branding and re-packaging is another symptom.

We are just going to feel it more in discussing the GNOME relationship
because its an old and enduring relationship. Up till now GNOME has
been seen as very distribution neutral in terms of its deliverables
allow distributors to effectively rebrand and provide a differentiated
experience that differentiates that distribution from peer
distributions but all really just variations on GNOME.

But new peer projects in the space are not taking a distribution
neutral stance.. they are taking a integrated deliverable experience
stance and that is putting pressure on GNOME as a project to deliver
an integrated experience as well via some channel. And as the GNOME as
OS meme takes firmer hold the desire for downstream distributors to
deliver that experience will increase as well.

As a _distribution_ project we are going to have to come to terms with
this move in thinking towards a highly integrated interface stack.

-jef