Bug 27019

(In reply to comment #0)
> In the file /etc/xdg/autostart/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1.desktop of
> polkit-gnome the line "OnlyShowIn=GNOME" should be removed or replaced by
> "DontShowIn=KDE", because the polkit agent is also needed for Xfce and LXDE.

Other desktops than GNOME can do already this by just shipping their own desktop file. That's preferable to me having to add change DontShowIn=KDE to DonShowIn=KDE;Xfce if Xfce does their own thing. It's also much easier for downstream distributors.

Other freedesktop.org developers and I disagree.

polkit is not Gnome or KDE related, it's desktop independend. And this .desktop file doesn't belong to Gnome or KDE but to polkit. So desktops should be able to rely on polkit.

If desktops should ship their own .desktop files you should remove this .desktop file completely and let also Gnome and KDE ship their own .desktop file. But this would be redundant as this could easily be done by only one .desktop file from polkit.

And there's only one desktop I know which isn't based on GTK.

For similar bug reports which have already been fixed search the bugzilla for "OnlyShowIn".
See e.g. bug #14681 or bug #26553,

(In reply to comment #2)
> Other freedesktop.org developers and I disagree.

Could be.

> polkit is not Gnome or KDE related, it's desktop independend. 

That is true, but polkit-gnome is not part of polkit. The polkit docs are extremely clear on the separation between core polkit and authentication agents (which is what polkit-gnome, among other things, provide).

> If desktops should ship their own .desktop files you should remove
> this .desktop file completely 

No, polkit-gnome is a _GNOME_ specific authentication agent for polkit, it's not some desktop-independent thing. I don't know where you have that idea from, I thought it was pretty clear from the name...