Re: Bug#681834: network-manager, gnome, Recommends vs Depends

[Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>]

Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:
> Russ Allbery writes:

>> As I understand it, the timeline here looks something like:

>> 1. network-manager was a Recommends in squeeze.

>> 2. GNOME maintainers get a bunch of bugs from confused users who don't
>>    install Recommends for some reason and then don't get network-manager
>>    and perceive a crippled system.

> Are you sure this is what happened ?  We have had very few users
> complaining on -devel who have globally disabled Recommends, although
> they have been very loud and insistent.

No, I'm not.  It's just what I was assuming based on the line of
reasoning, but I'm possibly wrong.  It would be useful to have feedback
from the GNOME maintainers on what lines of reasoning were persuasive in
getting them to upgrade Recommends to Depends.

> If this _is_ what happened then there should be evidence in the form
> of bug reports.

Indeed, although possibly not in obvious places (since confused users may
perceive breakage in unrelated packages).

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>