Re: [gentoo-dev] [RFC] Splitting desktop profile to KDE and GNOME

["Jesús Guerrero" <i92guboj@terra.es>]

On Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:42:17 +0200, Maciej Mrozowski <reavertm@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi there!
> 
> Resulting from discussion during last Gentoo KDE team meeting taking
place
> 22 
> Oct 2009 at #gentoo-meetings (summary fill be available soon), having
> Gentoo 
> GNOME team representative, it's been decided to go ahead with splitting 
> desktop profile to DE-specific subprofiles, to avoid bloat and provide
> desktop 
> specific separation which should result in desktop subprofiles being
> actually 
> practical.
> It's been proposed to:
> 
> - keep 'desktop' profile but strip it from any desktop specific features
> and 
> settings, making it default recommended choice for anyone using non-KDE
> and 
> non-GNOME desktop environment, yet avoiding USE flags bloat. Any other
DE
> is 
> free to join and create own DE-specific subprofile if needed.
> 
> - create 'KDE' (or 'kde') and 'GNOME' (or 'gnome') subprofiles within 
> 'desktop' profile and move any desktop specific things there. This
should
> in 
> theory allow us to not add 'recommended' IUSE defaults to desktop
specific 
> packages, but keep those settings in profile - making profile
effectively
> 'out 
> of the box' solution for those who need it.
> 
> If you have any comments, suggestions, important notices regarding this 
> change, please keep discussion in gentoo-desktop mailing list.

I fail to see how this is simpler and/or more versatile than simply using
USE="kde gnome", USE="-kde gnome", USE="-gnome kde" or USE="-gnome -kde".
What exactly are we going to gain by adding yet another level of complexity
where two simple USE flags suffice? I don't think it's even more elegant,
and in the worst case, it makes the things uselessly complicated when you
want to use both desktops.

We could also add an "image" subprofile, for those wanting USE="jpeg svg
png tiff" etc. Or an "fb" profile, for those only wanting USE="-X
directfb". It's a nonsense, I know. The desktop subprofiles are also a
nonsense to me :p

Just my opinion of course :)

-- 
Jesús Guerrero