There is an animated discussion on openFATE the Open SuSE feature tracking site. It has been proposed that OpenSuSE use KDE as the default setting for the desktop environment because:
- It is confusing for new Linux users if they have to decide between KDE and GNOME during the installation. New users don´t know either of them. So it is easier for beginners if there is a default. openSUSE has more KDE users than GNOME users so it is logical to make KDE the default.
- Unique Selling Point. It is important for openSUSE to provide something that Ubuntu and Fedora don´t provide. It would be beneficial for openSUSE to be the only big KDE distribution.
- This could attract more developers because KDE developers need a nice distribution to develop on.
- This would increase the popularity of openSUSE in the KDE user community. The negative impact on the GNOME community is not that bad because Ubuntu is the most popular GNOME distribution.
If comments on this article are correct, and the majority of SuSE users prefer KDE, this is probably a good decision. What is most important is what appeals to your particular user base.
Personally, I prefer WindowMaker. I use SuSE for my servers, so the GUI is unimportant to me, I don’t install it. I don’t choose my distribution based upon what default windowing environment they choose.
