Linux Questions Desktop Environment of the Year - interesting result

[Mark Bidewell]

On Sun, Feb 12, 2012 at 7:12 PM, Kevin Kofler <kevin.kofler at chello.at> wrote:
> Genes MailLists wrote:
>>   While it may make sense to make KDE the default DE for fedora - I
>> suspect that this cannot happen in fedora due to pressures from the
>> large number of gnome devs associated with Fedora - or could it? Should
>> it?
>
> IMHO, not only should the KDE spin become the default, but the Xfce spin
> should replace the GNOME spin (which of course needs to stop calling itself
> the "Desktop spin") on the mirrors. GNOME is no longer a major desktop! Xfce
> is now the second most popular desktop after KDE Plasma Desktop.
>
>>   I wonder if moving Gnome shell as a tablet spin and making KDE the
>> default laptop/desktop DE would have been a really smart move. Is it too
>> late? Perhaps we all really want a phone DE on our 42 inch desktops with
>> a touch screen that somehow doesn't cause muscle strain ...
>
> For a tablet spin, Plasma Active makes a lot more sense than gnome-shell:
> http://plasma-active.org/
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/PlasmaActive
>
> Plasma Active is actually designed for tablets, whereas the gnome-shell
> developers denied on more than one occasion that tablets were their intended
> target, even though its bizarre design happens to work out better for
> tablets than for normal computers.
>
>        Kevin Kofler
>
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> devel at lists.fedoraproject.org
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The confusion in the Linux Desktop space was a big reason why I jumped
from Fedora to a Mac.  I love KDE and it would be a great default, I
just wish that the decision hadn't been made to develop KDE in such a
way as to push the graphics envelope.   While I realize by Dell B130
is old, I should be able to drag a window around without artifacts
(with or win out compositing.  Ubuntu's Unity run the best.  I feel
that a lot of effort is being put into bling for bling's sake.  On my
Mac most of the "bling" enhances usability.  I wish KDE didn't use
5-10% of my CPU at idle.  IMO, the DE should attempt to consume as few
resources as possible.

-- 
Mark Bidewell
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markbidewell