It's the applications, stupid. (Score 1)

Novell is well aware that the driving force behind linux on the desktop will be availability of vertical applications with a standard set of essential business applications. Of course Novell is going to add development effort to the Mozilla/OpenOffice/Evolution combo. That combo is widely recognized as the Linux business application package. Novell will follow the momentum those names already have, to be sure.

The default desktop is inconsequential as long as both frameworks are supported. It would be prudent for Novell to keep the options open for developers to decide on which framework to use, as far as desktop linux is concerned. That's why I doubt any desktop environment would be dropped.