Underlying DE for the Fedora Workstation product

[Alexander GS]

On Wed, 2014-02-05 at 12:08 -0800, Adam Williamson wrote:
> The GNOME we're trying to build has its own vision, and it's trying to
> become its own well-defined product: The number-one free software
> operating system.

Not it's not. This means that they have a single dedicated desktop
experience and that the community is allowed to use those components but
there isn't a formal mechanism to standardize to a common core.  It also
excludes any potential requirements for a separate desktop environment
for commercial vendors. If you actually read my Proposal you would
realize that.

I have worked out a compromise that works for GNOME 3, GNOME 2 and the
Gnome community projects.  It's called the GNOME Meta-Desktop.  

PROPOSAL

-----------------------

GNOME Meta-Desktop

Problem

For some time now, Linux has been evolving beyond the idea of the
"single" desktop platform. This is not Windows where each platform is
bolted down to a single desktop interface design. Unfortunately projects
like GNOME have been slow to adapt. GNOME's focus on a single dedicated
desktop interface design has caused the Linux desktop space to fragment
causing divisions and frictions between the various communities. This
has also deprived commercial Linux platforms the ability to shape
desktops that fit strict requirements demanded by their target markets.

Currently and unofficially GNOME is evolving into a meta-desktop with
GNOME Shell, Cinnamon and MATE the resultant outputs of this evolution.
This brings along with it several problems such as fragmentation and
redundancies. The GNOME meta-desktop needs to be standardized, needs
community collaboration and needs GNOME in-house desktop products to
drive it forward.

https://wiki.gnome.org/AlexGS/GnomeMetaDesktop

------------------------

Pursuant to this proposal being accepted and implemented the following
will occur:

- The Fedora Workstation product will feature GNOME 3 as it's official
default and GNOME 2 will always be bundled with GNOME 3 on Workstation
installations and on install images.  Installations and install disks
that do not contain both GNOME 3 and GNOME 2 cannot be considered Fedora
Workstation.  This requirement remains indefinitely.

- GNOME 2 will be the default for RHEL and CentOS. Users will have the
option of installing GNOME 3 as well. They will have to add special
repositories to do this.

- Community desktops based on GNOME re-spins like MATE or forks like
Cinnamon in addition to non-GNOME desktops like KDE and will be
"supported" desktops but NOT included by default on Fedora Workstation
installation.