But we are not a company (like Google or Apple), we are a community
project. So the data we want to make a decision like this shouldn't be
just from users, but also about contributors. If most of our
contributors are putting most of their time in a DE project, then you
have your answer.
Google makes a good point, you guys should be making a decision based on data and not opinions. This isn't an art experiment or creative writing project. This is an engineering project that makes software that becomes part of an engineering product RHEL. You owe it to RHEL and it's subscribers who eventually have to live with your decisions that those decisions were the BEST ones you could possibly make based on the data. You should ask your Red Hat colleagues if they can borrow a few Red Hat analysts for a week or so to help them gather research, analysis and make a more informed decision to help guide the product development process. I'm sure these Red Hat analysts have friends at the IDC who can provide much of the research materials.
Please don't repeat the same mediocre product management found in every Linux distribution. I'm sick of seeing Linux projects make the same obvious mistakes over and over again. These mistakes are preventable through good research and analysis.