I think that use flags like "gtk" and "qt4" should be removed from the default "desktop" profile to the GNOME and KDE desktop subprofiles. I know that GTK and QT are not exclusive features of those desktop environments, but in general if you use GNOME you don't want QT on your system. The same happens if you use KDE (you don't want GTK). I do know that I can simply remove a USE flag from my system via the "USE" option on "make.conf", but to me it seems more logical to add features instead of removing them. Reproducible: Always
> I know that GTK and QT are not exclusive features of those desktop > environments, but in general if you use GNOME you don't want QT on your system. > The same happens if you use KDE (you don't want GTK). These flags are enabled in the desktop profile because most desktop applications support only one toolkit, and desktop users expect that when they emerge an application, they get some sort of a GUI for that application by default. If the desktop profile did not set USE="qt4", then packages like hplip, vlc, valgrind, or virtualbox would, by default, be emerged with a command-line interface only. Similarly, without USE="gtk", applications like pidgin, xchat, wireshark, and nmap would be command-line only. Emacs without USE=gtk would fall back to Xaw - an ancient and terrifyingly ugly toolkit that has been known to cause eye cancer. > in general if you use GNOME you don't want QT on your system. Unless you use lyx. Or scribus. Or vlc. Or amarok. Or clementine. Or ... > The same happens if you use KDE (you don't want GTK). I would guess that >90% of KDE users have firefox or chromium installed, and both are gtk-based.
Alexandre, thanks for your post, you are absolutely right. I'd like to add that when I started splitting the desktop profile, gtk/qt4 flags were added in top profile after the ack of both kde and gnome teams
OK. Thank you both for the feedback.
