[rav3ndust]

i mentioned the two I thought people moving from windows would be most comfy with.

for them, taskbar on bottom + 'start' menu = "neat, i already know how to use this!"

personally, i use i3/sway tiling window managers, and also keep gnome around if i want a full desktop. personally, i love the amount of choice we have in the gnu/linux world. if something doesn't work for you, you can select from so many other options.

"but...but...fragmentation! those guys working on cinnamon/mate/etc should just join gnome or kde and make The One True Desktop!" eh. i don't buy this line of thinking.

[hot_gril]

There are plenty of informally agreed-upon defaults in the GNU/Linux world. For instance almost everyone uses Bash, Git is the dominant version control, and the default browser is usually Firefox-based. This doesn't mean alternatives shouldn't exist, but they aren't neck and neck. Somehow no DE has won yet, and that's a serious usability problem.

[rav3ndust]

i'd say, in a way, we have 'informally' agreed upon a default desktop.

the flagship edition of ubuntu? GNOME.

the flagship edition of fedora? GNOME.

RHEL? GNOME.

installing debian with its defaults? GNOME.

while KDE ships on a few distros by default, and Mint ships with Cinnamon as its flagship, by-and-large, GNOME is what you're gonna get from your "major" distributions.