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

[Sune Vuorela]

On Tuesday 17 July 2012 19:15:34 Ian Jackson wrote:
>   - Some people claim that metapackages should not use Recommends.
>     I disagree.

Metapackages is *someones* *subjective* opinion what a specific set should do. 
And this subjective opinion is up to the maintainer to figure it out. Not 
anyone else. 
If you disagree with *someones* opinion, you are free to not use the 
metapackage. And it is easy. The metapackage itself does not offer any 
functionality.
 
>   - GNOME upstream have declared Network Manager to be an integral
>     part of GNOME and the Debian maintainer is insisting on following
>     their lead in gnome-core.  The maintainer is essentially asserting
>     that the very purpose of the gnome-core metapackage is to reflect
>     precisely what upstream have decreed, and that we should not
>     deviate.  

And this is a perfectly fine rationale. Having a set of packages that gives 
the user exactly what upstream is providing. Wether or not we shoul *also* 
offer something else is purely up to people doing the offerings. But being 
able to give the experience that upstream offers is important. And given what 
I have seen in some gnome apps, NM is needed for that experience.

NM is also the technology that Gnome has chosen to couple tightly with the 
shell in order to provide what upstream thinks is the best possible Gnome 
experience. We should allow our people to be able to provide what upstream 
thinks is the best possible experience.

> implications; both for users upgrading from squeeze and for other
> packages which depend on gnome-core.

Also note that the coupling between gnome-shell and NM has gotten much 
stronger since squeeze, so it is not unreasonable to require it harder than in 
the squeeze days. Software evolve.
 
/Sune
 - who isn't a user of the above packages, but want to have the right to 
define what the content of the meta packages he provides should do.
-- 
Man, how to unmount the microprocessor of a pointer of a program over the 
level-8 TCP icon from Word 3.6.9?

First of all you neither must explore the case, nor should mount a space bar 
for exploring the GPU.
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