Re: Dependencies et al (was: Default Debian install harassed me)
Hello, list.
It may seem a thread hijacking (and may be it is), but I feel that the
discussion of OP's problem has taken a wrong turn. Consider this a my
attempt to put in on a right track ☺.
So I've been reading this thread, and it got me thinking. I know, it's a
somewhat strange confession to make (☺), but anyway:
1) Call me old-fashioned, but posters' personalities should not matter
here, at this list.
Whenever a OP is a teen, old person, dog or AI (there are unconfirmed
sightings of last two posting here ;) is hardly relevant to the problem.
The language OP is using could definitely use some improvement indeed,
but discussing OP's personality just because of that is as low as it
gets.
2) OP claims to use a "Default Debian install", yet LXQT was installed.
Terminology aside, last time I've checked, Debian offered GNOME as a
default Desktop Environment. Regardless of my personal opinion of this
Finely Designed DE™, maybe (just maybe) GNOME should be made more
visible to the end user of Debian?
3) Synaptic did not provide a user a meaningful choice.
I know how the dependencies work, so are most of the list participants
(seems that way, at least).
What's more important here, I tend to believe that I know why they were
invented, and (contrary to some options expressed in this thread) - why
they are still relevant in 21st century.
But what we are seeing here? User wants to uninstall a package, but
another package wants to be installed instead for no good reason (from
user's POV). Moreover, in this case that is one of the two possible
replacements (check "lxqt" dependencies), but the user is not informed
of that.
I'm not saying that Synaptic should be transformed to aptitude (which is
famous for its multi-choice resolver), we have one aptitude already,
please leave it this way. But showing the *reason* of such replacement,
i.e. "lxqt package demands that you will have some archiver installed"
would be a definite step in right direction.
4) Metapackages tend to have restrictive dependencies.
The whole fuss is about the contents of the Depends field of "lxqt".
Last, but not least - is there a meaningful reason to use Depends
instead of Recommends in metapackages such as "lxqt"? Barring the
"gnome" package, I know the answer for it.
Options, comments, criticism and even the OP's option are welcome.
Reco
PS Just a friendly reminder. Please check for the existence of that
LDOSUBSCRIBER value of X-Spam-Status e-mail header *before* replying to
e-mail. Unless, of course, you intention is *not* to reply to OP but
have your reply visible to the list.
Reply to: