Linux Mint Forums

I've been using Mint 9 Gnome edition exclusively for well over a year on all my systems. Love it. While trying to figure out which DE I will use with Mint 13, a question came to mind; why not make KDE the Mint main edition in lieu of all the efforts needed with forking Gnome 2 and 3 (MATE and Cinnamon), then add usability tweaks to Gnome 3 in its own paradigm as it evolves, just like what was done with Gnome 2 in its own paradigm?

The main edition of Linux Mint is available with MATE, Cinnamon, Xfce and KDE. The Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is available with MATE, Cinnamon and Xfce (and unofficially with KDE, from Schoelje's work).

There are plenty of users (here's one, hi ) that give preference to one desktop over the others. Here is a good look at which desktops are preferred by Linux Mint users: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 3&t=100787. That should probably answer your question as to why Linux Mint offers choice

My guess is that it is just as much work getting KDE right as it is for Gnome for the distribution..
--I went through the groups, at least mint main (Gnome), but didn't try Mint's kde edition (used Fedora when kde 4x initially arrived and found a few panel issues, but that has been worked out since..)

So, I have ended up with LXDE and LMDE (xfce) versions, and find them to be fine (to use!)
--at least the desktops don't get in my way too much, and I can get to the applications, which is why I run the OS quicker..

I looked at the survey link given and find that I seem to be in a minority: that won't be changing my mind about the desktop to use.

Good info guys. The poll/survey is *very* telling. Looks like Mint is in line with what users want. That's great. Thanks.