Underlying DE for the Workstation product

[Alex GS]

cshalle wrote:
---
Improving touch screen support is a goal for both GNOME and Fedora, simply
because laptops are heading that way and if we offer something
that doesn't even try to use the touchscreen where it makes sense, users
will go elsewhere.
---

Linux based solutions oriented towards tablets, hybrids and
touch-screen-laptops already exist: Chrome OS and Android.  Realistically
nobody in the Linux community has the resources that Google does or the
mainstream market-share. Everyone knows the obvious, Google will dominate
that space.  In the technology press everyone is saying the "Year of the
Linux Desktop" will be because of Google and Chrome OS as well as Android.
 Please, don't waste your time and resources, leave this use-case alone.

Red Hat and Fedora as well as similar platforms thrive in the more
traditional desktop space and specifically workstations. If you walk into
Pixar, NASA or CERN you'll find Fedora/RHEL on workstations and servers.
 Look at Ubuntu at Google or Facebook.  If I call up any major OEM I can
get workstations with two different operating systems: Windows 7 and RHEL.
 Not surprisingly the product is called Fedora Workstation.

There's a theme at play here that if you focus 100% on traditional
workstations you can having a winning product that will even compete on
equal footing against Mac OS and Windows.

Linux distributions and desktop projects have been chasing the hybrid and
tablet and it's had the effect of throwing their workstation users off of
the bus. When Ubuntu and Fedora abandoned Gnome 2 and focused on Unity and
Gnome 3 this caused major disruption and chaos.  Around the same time many
developers and engineers ended up going with Mac OS because Apple provided
a conservative traditional desktop experience that was highly polished and
professional.

Last night I was looking at Gnome Shell extensions and I realized that most
of them had the effect of turning Gnome 3 back into Gnome 2.  The fact is
that the community and specifically the workstation use-case is desperately
seeking a Gnome 2 replacement that's why we have XFCE, LXDE and Cinnamon.
 This is why MATE exists and is rising in popularity.  The Linux community
still loves Gnome 2 and wants it back.

This is why I propose a compromise that will work for both Gnome and Fedora
Workstation:

Have both Gnome 2 (MATE) and Gnome 3 (Gnome Shell) be parallel but related
branches of the same Gnome product.

1. Have the Gnome Foundation adopt MATE as a Gnome 2 legacy project.
 Provide development and support resources to accelerate MATE's efforts to
transition to GTK3, systemd and Wayland.  Make sure that both Gnome 2 and
Gnome 3 are based on the same modern infrastructure.

2. Modify Mutter so that it can become the official compositor of MATE and
replace the practice of bundling Gnome 2 with Compiz which is now an Ubuntu
product.  This would ensure that Gnome 2 and Gnome 3 have similar look,
behavior and feel.  Another option is to use Compton but that could be seen
as a short-term fix until Mutter was fully integrated into Gnome 2.

3. Keep Gnome 3 as is in the present and don't interfere with that project
or dictate design to them.  Gnome 3 will exist as a development project
focused on innovation, experimentation and creativity.  Their focus would
continue to be on pushing desktop boundaries and exploring alternative
paradigms.  If appropriate, innovations developed in the Gnome Shell would
be occasionally fed back into Gnome 2.  This will create a healthy Gnome
innovation cycle.

4. Make Gnome 2 the default desktop for Fedora Workstation with Fedora
branding and themes as well as the current Gnome default applications.
 Have Gnome 3 be an optional extra at installation.  Also offer KDE as well
for diversity.

5.  Promote Gnome 3 to Gnome 2 users.  When the user runs Gnome 2 for the
first time have a prompt that says "Would you like to see the future?  Try
out Gnome 3".   And it would be installed side-by-side with Gnome 2.

That way the traditional desktop can be addressed by Gnome 2 (MATE) and
Fedora Workstation doesn't have to interfere and disrupt the activities
happening over at Gnome with Gnome 3 (Gnome Shell).  Both projects can
happily cooperate and coexist.  This sort of collaboration is what Linux is
famous for and Fedora Workstation should epitomize.
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