Desktop - all investment behind one opinionated desktop; stock upstream GNOME ships only as a zero-investment bridge for 10.2 and Everfox

Situation

Peter told Greg (10/20) and then Bjorn and Brady (10/21) that CIQ will not build two opinionated, fantastic desktops. GNOME ships straight from upstream for 10.2 and the January Everfox timeframe, with only the tweaks needed for the Everfox required applications - nothing that changes functionality and nothing that needs separate support. All desktop investment goes into one opinionated desktop; Cosmic is only a placeholder, and which desktop it is belongs to Product. End state is dropping GNOME or pointing at upstream unchanged.

Reasoning

Greg heard do both as two perpetual, fully invested variants - the multi-desktop failure mode Linux distros have hit for decades. Peter separated shipping GNOME (near-free from upstream) from investing in it (zero), so Everfox gets a desktop in January without splitting the strategy. The choice of opinionated desktop is deliberately left to Product; the engineering stake is one arrow, not which arrow.

Additional Context

Refines the 10/13 decision that enterprise GNOME and an AI desktop ship together: GNOME is a bridge with an exit, not a co-equal product. Greg flagged that GNOME must then be supported for the rest of the 10.x release. Thursday 8am meeting with Bjorn and Brady is the next decision point.

Observed Evidence

Desktop call: You need to convince the product org (re Cosmic). Slack 10/21: GNome comes straight from upstream with whatever tweaks needed for Everfox required applications; the goal is one day we drop GNome entirely.

Matching Patterns

Confidence Breakdown

Reasoning Depth Analysis