Summary says it all, really. Rationale is as follows: legacy packages usually take up only a small amount of resources (ie disk space), but if they are not present many programs that are not distributed in the form of Fedora-specific RPMs like games/autopackages/other 3rd party apps will fail to install or run with mysterious error messages users don't know how to solve. An explicit goal of the Fedora project is "Emphasize usability and a 'just works' philosophy in selecting default configuration and designing features" [1]. Installing the legacy packages by default increase the Just Works nature and reduces the need to manually debug the system when using software that is not packaged by Fedora (ie, most of it). In short - low cost, high benefit. [1] http://fedora.redhat.com/about/objectives.html
I disagree. default is too bloated already without adding legacy cruft to carry around If apps need it, they can bother to pull it in via rpm dependencies. Don't force it on everyone by default.
Re comment #1: I believe that would be a legitimate criticism if Mike were suggesting that they be added to the "Minimal" group. He did not; he suggested that they be added to the "Default" group, which is supposed to provide a high- function installation for an average user. (The type of user that downloads the Acrobat Reader tarball, for example.) And calling GCC 3.x "legacy cruft" is simply silly.
"And calling GCC 3.x "legacy cruft" is simply silly." GCC 3.2 is in compat-gcc-32 package.
Installing the compat stuff by default is the wrong solution to the problem. The right thing to do here is to work on the fact that third party software isn't packaged and work to make it so that occurs instead of bloating everyone's install.
The fact that third party software isn't packaged for Fedora is an intractable problem. Installing a few *megs* of compatibility package (that will usually not be in memory) so 3rd parties are not constantly screwed over is a very tractable problem. I suggest you focus on low hanging fruit instead of planning world domination.