Using the openSUSE Feature Tracking System, (openFATE), members of the openSUSE community and openSUSE users can register their wishes regarding the next version of openSUSE and right now, what they want is KDE. Frank Karlitschek, newly elected board member by KDE, has now officially lodged the request.

The reasons for KDE as default are obvious: according to an openSUSE survey, around two-thirds of its users work with KDE as desktop. Also, openSUSE developers are traditionally strongly connected with KDE and SUSE has always had the reputation of being the best KDE distro. When Novell proposed Gnome as default for the Enterprise products, the negative echo in the community was loud and today this weak compromise still exists, with Gnome top of the list but with no desktop preselected.

That the situation, especially for new members, presents a considerable obstacle, and it's clear other distributions could easily do without making the selection, openSUSE should reinstate KDE as default and keep Gnome as the option, demands Karlitschek.

The discussion surrounding the default desktop, which could lead to an ungainly argument between Novell (Gnome advocates) and the community (KDE fans), has been joined by KDE developer Sebastian Kuegler. In his blog, Kuegler calls upon Novell to clarify their position and to end the biased status of Gnome (with an explanation from KDE developer Lubos Lunak). He ends his blog with these words:

"The numbers are clear, KDE is the preferred desktop of the openSUSE community. There is a formal request to reflect that in the installation process. Novell, and those with decision-making powers in the openSUSE team now have the opportunity to prove that features.opensuse.org is not just a lip-service, that the community does control the direction of openSUSE."