My explanation to "a default DE" (was "Providing a default graphical environment on FreeBSD")

[Mike Meyer]

Zhihao Yuan <lichray at gmail.com> wrote:
>As u can see, it's a stand alone app. But the most widely used wifi
>managers are always taskbar applets -- something bound to a specific
>DE. --

There are a number of taskbar applications not bound to a DE (dzen2, mobar, gkrellm2) which have plugins for managing the kinds of things you're talking about. The X protocols provide a way for such applications to declare themselves as "bars", and for other interested applications (usually WM's) to discover the screen geometry both with and without bars.

>we must standardize a ${DE}!

Why? So far, the only advantage you've cited is that users can get a supported, documented desktop on FreeBSD (except there's nobody to support or document it) and developers could get a documented desktop to write apps for (except there's again nobody to document it, and you're the only developer asking for it), and you haven't said anything bad would happen if this doesn't happen.

      <mike 
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