How much do defaults matter to you?

[aysiu]

I've seen a lot of threads with long, heated arguments about what default applications should be or what default setups should exist.

Should the default browser be Firefox or Epiphany? Should the default email client be Thunderbird or Evolution? Should the default colour scheme be brown or blue? Should the default be root or sudo?

Well, how much do defaults matter to you. I'm talking about you as individual. You can speak for others or theoretical new users, too, but I especially want to hear about your experiences and considerations.

You. Your expereinces. Your answers.

Edit: Please do answer the poll even if you don't post in this thread. I really have no idea how this will turn out. Usually when I post a thread I have a general idea of what the results will be. I have no clue on this one.

[meng]

Arrggggh! Too many voting options!!!!!!! Just like frigging Linux!! I want freedom from choice! :p

Arguably (okay it's tenuous, but stick with me here), clinging to defaults is just one tiny step away from going back to Windows. Remember all the fuss over Windows being bundled with Media Player and IE? Defaults are for the birds.

[Orunitia]

Remember all the fuss over Windows being bundled with Media Player and IE? Defaults are for the birds.

I don't think people cared much that they were default, more for the fact that you can't get rid of the pieces of ****.

[Randomskk]

I like good defaults in that it's less programs to have to install or remove later.
Generally speaking, I'll compile the latest beta of any app I use often (yet for some reason I only use stable releases of the OS! I'm crazy...), but for everything else it's nice to have the developers choose something, that works with the system, and means I don't have to go hunted for an app to fill a role.

Plus it means I discover cool new apps, and apps that do things I'd never think of! An example is having Konversation in KDE - I never used to use IRC, but since finding the client I now use it a fair amount and hell, I have my own IRC server now!

[aysiu]

I'll explain a little bit about why defaults matter to me. If I ever want to show Ubuntu to someone (and I've shown it to a couple of people), what they see is the default on the live CD.

That live CD's defaults make a first impression on a user. If the defaults are ugly, then... well, that's the impression people get, even if you assure them themes are customizable and interchangeable. I have to say I'm glad they traded up the dull brown of Breezy for a bit of a more orange-ish brown in Dapper. Firefox is comforting to a lot of ex-Windows users, and having that on the live CD is a good thing, too.

That said, Ubuntu is not as impressive as a live CD as other distros, especially to people who love proprietary codecs or want to use the live CD as a recovery tool.

As far as my installation goes, defaults matter only in that if something I like happens to be the default, it's one less thing I have to change, but I end up changing a lot anyway, so for my hard drive installation, I don't really care. I change up the wallpaper, I change the default applications, I get rid of the bootsplash.

[meng]

I don't think people cared much that they were default, more for the fact that you can't get rid of the pieces of ****.
I don't agree completely. The bundling of a default media player and browser with Windows taps into natural human laziness to go looking for alternative players/browsers, regardless of the ability to uninstall them.

That said, my initial post was just a bit tongue-in-cheek, so I won't be offended if you rip my 'arguments' to shreds.

[wrtrdood]

To me personally, defaults rarely matter. I don't think I've used any distribution as delivered. It's the one thing about GNU/Linux that I find so attractive. Granted, I can spend far too much time getting everything "just right" that way but choice, to me, is everything.

Where defaults do matter to me is when I have other people involved. Known, simple choices are very important here. Just try troubleshooting a problem over the phone with someone and you'll understand what I mean. To this end, I feel that the current state of Dapper is excellent and, as aysiu mentions, first impressions are very important. Having basic programs that do things most people expect to be able to do with a computer is important. Again, with the possible exception of Evolution, I think Ubuntu does a great job.

Just my two cents...

[Lux Perpetua]

Defaults are important, even though I rarely keep them. They are a large part of the image of a distribution. They're important in the same way that first impressions are important. If you were selling it, then it would be a no-brainer: stuff like this is key.

A poorly chosen default setup can actually make people feel alienated or push them away. There are multiple levels of this. There's the functional level (default functionality should be intuitive and useful), and there's the subtler artistic level. An artistic default should always aim to "include" as many users as possible, and that usually means being as neutral as possible to avoid alienating potential users.

My opinion on defaults can roughly be summed up as "I shouldn't feel like I have to change them, even if I end up getting rid of them all."

[hollywoodb]

Personally as far as defaults go:

Browser:
I use firefox. I also keep epiphany around. Extensions keep me using firefox

Email:
I use webmail exclusively. Reason being my email setup remains identical from any computer or OS I may use without configuration. If you're interested, after much searching I finally settled on Fastmail.fm, and over the years I've moved from a free account to a suscribing member and equally happy with each account upgrade I've made.

Audio Player:
I use Quod Libet (although exaile is gaining heavy ground in that dept)
I keep beep-media-player around for my friends who aren't very computer-savvy. I also keep them in a well-controlled IceWM and I manage the master playlist for them.

Video Player:
MPlayer, and browser plugin. For my tastes there is no alternative.

Editor:
I do most my stuff in vim. Rarely do I use a gui text editor, and when I do I have mousepad.

Notes:
I'm running Xubuntu :P


Enough about me, for a new user I think Firefox and Thunderbird are your friendliest web combination. I chose Firefox over Epiphany here because by default Epiphany looks a bit "barren" inteface-wise. For the newcomer this could be interpreted as "weak" or lacking features. I chose Thunderbird over Evolution simply because Thunderbird offers a more "Outlook Express" experience while Evolution could be a bit overwhelming.

As far a multimedia goes, Totem/Xine or MPlayer should fit the bill, but Totem/gxine look cleaner. I would very much like to see Audacious in the repos to replace BMP.

Text editing? Anything that resembles Notepad is going to be familiar enough for a new user.

I keep referring to new users here because they make up a healthy percentage of the userbase. More experienced users and people such as myself have most likely had a taste of quite a few different applications that peform the same basic task and have decided what they like to use. We also already know how to set our default applications. First and foremost a default application should perform the basic task it is intended to perform with little hassle, a bit of intuitiveness, and blend in to the "desktop experience".

[imagine]

The question is wrong. It's not about if defaults matter a lot *to me*, but that three out of four people do never change the default settings of any given program as long as they don't have a specific problem with them and/or are advised to change them.
However most of the people who participate in IT-onlineforums are among the other 25%.

So what I'd vote is: "Default values matter incredibly much, however not to me". Since that option doesn't exist I voted "Other".

[ComplexNumber]

i voted for other. it depends upon what the DE/WM being referred to is. defaults don't matter all that much to me (well, not on gnome anyway), but i tend to keep most of them. they only matter on a system that a) there are lots of defaults to remedy (eg KDE), and/or b) i'm not familiar with because first impressions do count sometimes. its a bit like when you meet a person for the first time. they may well be the most lovely person underneath, but if they don't project themselves in a very positive light, then you're not going to want to get to know them. its the same with a DE/WM - if the defaults make the DE/WM look crap and ugly, your first reaction is to think "no way jose am i going to be spending much time with you!". howevr, studies have shown that, if a person had a bad experience with a person(or a DE/WM) and they later found out that that person(or DE/WM) is a good person(or DE/WM), they tend to like them much more than if their first reaction to them was a positive one.

[henriquemaia]

Defaults matter a lot to me, and I more or less keep them.

The reasons: because there are lot more people putting their minds behind the choices made when coming to defaults. All these people CAN be wrong, but it's most likely that I'M the one who is wrong. Think about usability, stability, integration. How much thought have you really put into it?

I'm pretty happy with what I get and I do learn new and good things that really improve my productivity.

[rado_london]

I love defaults. They make the new user's life easier. And as someone mentioned they leave the first impression. For dapper the default icons are perfect and thats why i didnt change them. I never did this before.

[fuscia]

as long as i can change them, i don't care.

[Stormy Eyes]

The default is never good enough for me.

[IYY]

I don't use the defaults, ever, but they matter to me a lot for two reasons:

1. I often use the LiveCD, show and give it to friends. I don't want to tell them that Ubuntu can look good, I want to show them how good it looks.

2. If I install the CD on my friends' or family machines, they'll often keep the defaults.