Xfce not default in future release of Debian

http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=tasksel/tasksel.git;a=commit;h=56f8dffd7e7d0cd013a1251e1f12a4a1124262d7

by dsirijus • 14 years ago

43 23 14 years ago

anonscm.debian.org

willvarfar• 14 years ago

Anyone got a good summary of the back story?

morfa• 14 years ago

http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=tasksel/tasksel.git;a=co...

Here is a summary of the changes:

http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/p=tasksel/tasksel.git;a=sum...

And this as well:

http://www.neowin.net/news/debian-drops-gnome-chooses-xfce-a...

Basically a while back, Joey Hess changed Debian to XFCE from Gnome. Someone else has just changed it back. But looks like it's probably temporary. We'll see.

keithpeter• 14 years ago

Mr Hess has commented on the Debian tradition that the first CD image of the CD installer set is able to install a complete functional desktop. See

http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/debian-cd_work_at_DebCamp/

The implication is that I draw from this is that the XFCE as default suggestion was related to getting the first iso size below 700Mb.

deelowe2• 14 years ago

Anyone know why?

rquirk• 14 years ago

Gnome was taken off as the default because it wouldn't fit on a CD. After some work to get it to fit on again, Gnome is back as the default.

deelowe2• 14 years ago

Thanks. I assumed it was this, but wanted to be sure.

emillon2• 14 years ago

I don't know why people focus so much on "default" desktop environments. No desktop is more supported than another one, as long as there is a package (and a maintainer! come join us, all hands are welcome) for it. This commit is from tasksel's git repository, which is used when you decide to install "tasks" from the debian installer.

Choosing to install a particular desktop environment when you want a "graphical environment" is only a matter of convenience : proposing GNOME from a CD install is getting harder because of the size of new versions. Several ideas were proposed : changing the default DE in tasksel, changing the compression scheme for .debs (using LZMA instead of bzip2), or even dropping CD installations IIRC (keeping just CD and USB netinstalls, and DVD installations).

randallsquared• 14 years ago

I don't know why people focus so much on "default" desktop environments. No desktop is more supported than another one,

But in the long run, a default desktop will be more thoroughly tested than a non-default. This is less true for debian than ubuntu, but I'd guess there's still some effect.

emillon2• 14 years ago

In the end, the one that will be more tested is of course the with the most users (higher popcon in debian terms). Having a default value certainly will cause more installs, but there's no distribution-wide effort to make XFCE or Gnome more tested than KDE or ratpoison : every one is a first class citizen.

slurgfest2• 14 years ago

Gnome 2 had an unusually long run and it was only really used for less than a decade. So even optimistically, the long run doesn't matter past 9 years or so.

Then there are other packages which will never be less tested than a default because they have already been tested for a few years.

zanny2• 14 years ago

One problem with defaults is that if you put, say, a modern version of Unity on a live cd, and try running it in some system with a really crummy integrated GPU, you will have a completely unresponsive experience because hardware acceleration isn't on.

Starting with something light and making eye candy available as an option sounds better than having extreme eye candy (gnome3, kde, Unity) and having to endure extreme slowness to get to lxde or openbox.

rdtsc• 14 years ago

Make both install-able and working and pick automatically at install time?

When running on old hardware offer something light (all the way down to text, say for mainframes).

jlarocco• 14 years ago

That's true, but it's a completely different thing. This isn't about a LiveCD, it's about the regular installer.

I don't see why people are making a big deal out of the change. The net installer already has an option to choose between LXDE, Gnome, KDE, and XFCE. I'd suspect anybody installing Debian themselves and who has a preference would know how to change between them.

That said, it wouldn't hurt to make the option could be a little easier to find.

slurgfest2• 14 years ago

Having to endure extreme slowness? Why not: Ctrl-Alt-F1, log in, then apt-get install lxde? (or lubuntu-desktop depending on what you are using)

donniezazen• 14 years ago

People are biased towards pre-installed setup. This might not be huge in Linux but in general they tend to use what's provided. Also it gets more attention and more finishing touch by developers.

SpoonMeiser• 14 years ago

The problem I find with something like gnome, is that it pulls in a huge amount of dependencies, and it isn't always easy to cleanly remove it.

tadfisher• 14 years ago

`sudo apt-get autoremove --purge gnome*`

dobro• 14 years ago

>I don't know why people focus so much on "default" desktop environments. No desktop is more supported than another one, as long as there is a package

That's not true. The "default" gets much more attention from users, and most new users will use it.

In a project like Ubuntu, for example, the "default" gets more funding, more people working on it, including professionally and more tailored themes.

sanxiyn• 14 years ago

3 months ago here: Debian Now Defaults To Xfce Desktop

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4356197

Read the thread for the back story.

pwpwp• 14 years ago

You can choose Xfce under Advanced Settings in the Debian installer, giving you a very lean desktop environment.

Xfce not default in future release of Debian

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