MATE chosen by default instead of gnome for blind people [Was: Debian Installer Stretch Alpha 6 release]

[Samuel Thibault]

Hello,

Cyril Brulebois, on Sat 21 May 2016 23:13:17 +0200, wrote:
>  * brltty:
>     - Install MATE desktop by default when brltty is used in d-i.
>  * espeakup:
>     - Install MATE desktop by default when espeakup is used in d-i.

This change has triggered discussion on the debian-boot IRC channel. To
summarize, gnome people are surprised that MATE would be preferred by
blind people and wonder what they need to improve in gnome. I answered
that it was more a problem of general trend towards visual ways of
using the desktop, which can't be made really usable, but that's only a
sketchy answer, they need more precise examples.

Could blind people here comment on this: why you don't use gnome and
prefer MATE instead? (or the converse of course, the idea is not to
blame gnome, we just want to select by default what is best for users,
according to their situation. Ideally we'd just say "pick whatever,
they're all good").

Samuel