Re: Gratituous dependences among packages

[Omer Zak <w1@zak.co.il>]

On Fri, 2009-03-20 at 22:11 +0100, Ana Guerrero wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 08:33:55PM +0200, Omer Zak wrote:
> > My wish is that modularization of Debian packages be improved.  It means
> > that it'll be possible to uninstall all games in a PC and continue to
> > have functioning KDE.  Likewise - TeX.
> 
> kde is a metapackage that includes _all_ KDE that is not related to
> development. If you just want a functional KDE without games and related 
> stuff look at kde-core. Then you can install what you want else using the modules
> metapackages (kdemultimedia, kdenetwork, kdeadmin....) or just the application
> you are missing.

Thanks, Ana, relying upon kde-core instead of the kde meta-package fixed
my problem.

The question is then if, where and how to improve documentation and user
instructions so that people won't find themselves in a similar situation
unless they want so.

What purpose is served by the existence of kde (the metapackage)?
Is there a reason why not to clarify its meaning by renaming it as
'kde-full' and having a 'kde-slim' package which includes the entire kde
minus development, games, texlive and other heavyweights?  And in the
package descriptions, document clearly what each metapackage
installs/omits.

(It may well be the case that the subject was discussed in the past, but
if games and texlive were lighter then, then I hope it's OK to raise
again the subject.)

                                        --- Omer
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