6 ms·

Xfce not default in future release of Debian

43 points by dsirijus 14y ago

willvarfar 14y ago
Anyone got a good summary of the back story?
- morfa 14y ago
  http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=tasksel/tasksel.git;a=commit;h=2a962cc65cdba010177f27e8824ba10d9a799a08 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=summary 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-as-default-desktop 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 14y 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/ 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.
deelowe 14y ago
Anyone know why?
- rquirk 14y 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.
  - deelowe 14y ago
    Thanks. I assumed it was this, but wanted to be sure.
emillon 14y 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 14y 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.
  - emillon 14y 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.
  - slurgfest 14y 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.
- zanny 14y 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.
sanxiyn 14y ago
3 months ago here: Debian Now Defaults To Xfce Desktop http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4356197 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4356197 Read the thread for the back story.
pwpwp 14y ago
You can choose Xfce under Advanced Settings in the Debian installer, giving you a very lean desktop environment.
pwpwp 14y ago
You can choose Xfce under Advanced Settings in the Debian installer, giving you a very lean desktop environment.

43 points by dsirijus 14y ago

willvarfar 14y ago

Anyone got a good summary of the back story?

morfa 14y ago
http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=tasksel/tasksel.git;a=commit;h=2a962cc65cdba010177f27e8824ba10d9a799a08 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=summary 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-as-default-desktop 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 14y 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/ 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.

deelowe 14y ago

Anyone know why?

rquirk 14y 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.
- deelowe 14y ago
  Thanks. I assumed it was this, but wanted to be sure.

emillon 14y 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 14y 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.
- emillon 14y 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.
- slurgfest 14y 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.
zanny 14y 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.

sanxiyn 14y ago

3 months ago here: Debian Now Defaults To Xfce Desktop http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4356197 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4356197 Read the thread for the back story.

pwpwp 14y ago

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

pwpwp 14y ago

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