This issue should serve as a collation of feedback that kindly provided by the Fedora community and leadership on the Fedora Plasma Workstation proposal.

Links:

• Proposal: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/FedoraPlasmaWorkstation
• Forum Discourse: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343
• Mailing list: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/7JBXSA7W7B336S4AO6A4BADRPERI34HU/

Key points

• Feedback on Discourse leaned more towards promotion of Plasma as a Workstation edition, side-by-side installation options, or in general more promotion on the side.
• There were good points from community members on why one desktop or another may be better for their disability or neurodivergence. Accessibility topics of this nature should be considered when moving forward with this proposal or any iteration on the proposal.

Discourse

The discussion topic on Fedora Discussion received a wide range of feedback thanks in part to its ease-of-use / accessibility. The intent of this section is to highlight thoughts from the Fedora community, consisting of those in favor, not in favor, suggestions for alternative solutions, and other notable posts which may be considered valuable when considering this Change Proposal and/or any resulting changes to such proposal.

In favor

This is an amazing idea, KDE was an absolute game changer for me when I first got into Linux and I didn’t realize until diving down the rabbit hole of Fedora Spins.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/30

I am in support of this proposal. I think GNOME is increasingly holding Fedora back, with them often being the last to implement a Wayland standard, or having a completely different approach to solving certain problems compared to all the other DE’s.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/89

Not in favor

i can just speak out of my experience,
gnome with wayland worked out of the box with 4 external monitors
kde was a hassle to even get the external screens somehow working

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/47

My preference is to retain Gnome as the Fedora desktop. If there’s a Fedora KDE spin and someone wants to promote it more, that’s fine with me. I have no objection to KDE but I don’t want to see it become the desktop for Fedora.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/88

Side-by-side installation or promotion

Fully agree with all arguments made.
As a compromise, there could also be a selection screen in the installed (“Do you want Plasma or Gnome?”) similar to what OpenSUSE and Mageia have. But ideally Plasma would become the new Workstation.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/2

I have to agree here. While I’d definitely love to see KDE Plasma as a first-class citizen, we should not be worsening the existing Gnome experience or moving away from it. People expect Workstation to be GNOME, so suddenly changing that is way too disruptive.
A nice compromise, which I’d totally like to see happening (even though I’m not a Plasma user), would be to make Workstation offer both GNOME and Plasma as different (but equal) flavours, instead of classing Plasma as a spin. Much like how OpenSUSE Tumbleweed gives you the option to choose between Gnome and Plasma during installation (not necessarily handled the same way).

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/19

I use GNOME and I also prefer it to continue like this and that’s why I emphasized the “concise focus”, however I also think that promoting the KDE spin a little is not a bad idea as long as it is within what is required of Fedora since this is the focus of all discussion.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/57

I would prefer more to create a Workstation that contains both KDE and GNOME, and to set one or the other as default for the user, so that they are not forced to choose their adventure (as Matt called it) but have some pre-determined default, but still the possibility to change the choice if they want.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/65

Keeping up with KDE spirit, Fedora should allow users to choose their preferred desktop environment during installation, just like Debian does, or Fedora Core did back in the day. Or at least promote KDE to “workstation” version, like current release with GNOME. Leaving KDE as a “spin” does not do justice for developers, who really did a great job, and are not stopping anytime soon.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/76

I support the Workstation installer offering a choice between GNOME and KDE, or alternatively the Workstation downloads page having separate ISOs for GNOME and KDE.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/80

So basically my tiny proposal is following: Showcase both KDE Plasma and GNOME side by side on the frontpage of Fedora project. Or, hey, why not showcase all spins? Show screenshots and differences.
Fedora is clearly more than just one DE, and that should be proudly showcased… And not hidden in bottom of page in sea of links that tell nothing to a newcomer.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/85

Having an A/B choice with no default selected, would go a long way in showing users that there are other options available, as without diving into the spins pages there really isn’t much indication that there is any options outside of GNOME during the install process.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/108

"Workstation" KDE

Not sure if this has been discussed, but promoting the KDE Spin to a full-fledged edition along Workstation would (to me at least) seem like a solution that would feel the best for everyone. It wouldn’t change things for the folks that prefer GNOME (me included) and would offer more visibility to KDE and make it easier for those that want to use it to find it. Since our main edition isn’t called Fedora GNOME but Fedora Workstation it could just be a matter of naming the edition in a vague enough way.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/50

As other people have said, Fedora Workstation GNOME and Workstation KDE would be a better idea IMO. The KDE edition can be advertised as something for Windows users, while the GNOME edition can be advertised as ‘a unique experience’.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/61

Why not ship both (GNOME and Plasma) on the official Workstation?
(neither pre-selected, of course!)

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/63

One of the reasons I didn’t try fedora sooner is because it seemed that its main focus was on Gnome and as a person that wanted to game and get the best and latest features that Linux could provide I wanted to use KDE. I eventually did give Gnome a try, unfortunately I didnt stick with it because of the uniformity issues between GTK and QT apps that really bothered me but that’s besides the point of this discussion.
[...]
Overall I think KDE fits more the experimental side of Linux than Gnome, its worth at least the discussion on the benefits of making a workstation edition of KDE.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/73

So with these points in mind and because Gnome and KDE Plasma cater two different audiences i can´t help ask myself why both are not treated as equals on the homepage, marketing etc.
Workstation Gnome
Workstation KDE Plasma
So i as a user would like to see both offered when i visit f.p.o/workstation

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/81

Other thoughts

I have HiDPI laptop with 15.6’’ display. Needless to say GNOME is no option for me. I don’t want to scale fonts and leave interactive objects as they are. GNOME just doesn’t support fractional scaling (until recently, xwayland left as it is). While KDE did with x11 and does with Wayland KWin.
[...]
To sum it up, my personal experience with GNOME and KDE Plasma 5-6 makes me think that the KDE team is more concerned about making DE accessible to a wide range of people.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/49

My partner, and my a friend of mine, are both neurodivergent.
They have both used KDE Plasma, and they have both used GNOME.
They have both hated KDE for its complexity compared to GNOME, where they said “it just works” on GNOME.
GNOME UI and app design makes their computers easier to use in comparison to Windows.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/9

While your own experience is certainly yours, when we’re talking about making decisions for a whole distro it isn’t that simple. I am neurodivergent. My wife is neurodivergent, and it will be no surprise that all three of our children are neurodivergent. I have known a lot of people who were, in retrospect, clearly neurodivergent. I have a lot of experience first- and second- hand with ADHD and beyond. And the most important single lesson I’ve learned is that it’s not safe to generalize about neurodivergent people. They have to be able to define their environment and structure, because nobody else can guess unless they know them personally very well. As a case in point, I hate Gnome. I find Windows less annoying.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f42-change-proposal-fedora-plasma-workstation-system-wide/111343/94

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