Jan Schaumann wrote:
> 
> Richard Rauch <rauch@rice.edu> wrote:
> 
> > I don't care for the idea of tying KDE too closely to NetBSD.  I'd also be
> > leery of accidentally creating the impression that NetBSD endorses KDE, or
> > has integrated it, or that it is ``the'' way that people should use X on
> > NetBSD.
> 
> Agreed - the only problem I see with this is that *if* you set up X per
> default, you have to select _a_ windowmanager to be the default.  This
> will become the windowmanager that -- as people conceive it -- NetBSD
> "supports" or "comes with".
> 
> Even if you offer the user a choice, you get into an area that requires
> certain knowledge from the end-user (difference between KDE, GNOME,
> $WindowManager, what a windowmanager is in contrast to a DE etc), and
> you still need to default to something.
> 
> If you default to something like twm, Blackbox or WindowMaker, people
> will call it "user-unfriendly" - if you default to GNOME or KDE you get
> all the baggage it comes with and NetBSD is identified with that
> environment.  Neither is an optimal solution.

We at DaemonNews have discussed the idea of making a special NetBSD
"KDE Workstation" and/or "GNOME Workstation" product, perhaps bundled
with a book about KDE/GNOME and a book about NetBSD.  A "simplified"
installer would be part of the product as well, but that might just
be a somewhat scripted version of sysinst.  The idea behind such a
product is to make a boxed product that can be placed in bookstores,
computer stores, and perhaps other geek-ish hangouts like Internet 
Cafes.  

We would stuff the disc(s) full of precompiled packages, perhaps 
including a second disc with package binaries for stuff not related
to KDE or GNOME, including alternate window managers, terminal programs,
mail & irc clients, etc.

Do you think such an offering would attract enough attention to be a 
plus to the NetBSD community?  Would offering such a product as x86
only, or perhaps x86 and PPC, be seen as an overpowering limitation?

I am interested in any ideas you might have as to how to communicate
to the buys that this is "NetBSD Workstation, featuring {KDE|GNOME}"
as opposed to "{KDE|GNOME} Workstation with some mumble BSD mumble 
mumble".  The purpose of creating such a product is to get NetBSD
in front of eyeballs that haven't seen it before; the NetBSD is the
important part of the message to get across.

-- 
                                 Boats love me
                                 Sails fear me
Wes Peters <wes@dobox.com>                                     System Architect
http://www.dobox.com/                                                DoBox Inc.