Bug#1060803: gnome-software: Please don't depend on `software-properties-gtk`

[Matthias Klumpp]

Am Di., 16. Jan. 2024 um 18:21 Uhr schrieb Julian
<juliannfairfax at protonmail.com>:
>
> > That is false, GNOME Software on Debian does depend on s-p-gtk. The
> > reason this was implemented is that the PackageKit repository
> > preferences dialog does not cover all the options needed on a Debian
> > system, and especially not when used on an Ubuntu system.
> > Instead of giving users an inferior and possibly broken way of
> > adjusting package sources, we'd rather provide them with a proper
> > selection dialog.
> >
>
> That is a notable endeavour, but I don't see why it has to be forced on GNOME Software users in this way. It would be entirely possible to install the app without overriding the way GNOME Software works, or simply to recommend it rather than requiring it.

Without that change, users would have had broken repository
management. We do not want to ship broken things.

> > Certainly not, Debian's job is to integrate software to form a
> > cohesive operating system, and adding/removing dependencies, changing
> > compiler flags that affect dependency selection and applying
> > integration patches is an integral part of that.
> >
>
> For mobile devices, this actually makes the experience of using Debian worse. s-p-gtk is not an adaptive app, and there is no way to prevent it from overriding GNOME Software's functionality, or to uninstall it without also being forced to uninstall GNOME Software along with it.

Fair point. We could maybe make it so g-s-p is only a recommended
dependency, and modify the code so when g-s-p is not available, it
falls back to the GS dialog. I think I fixed things enough so that at
the very least you can enable/disable repositories without running
into problems, and most basic features should actually work (you can
not manage keys or add repositories though).

Cheers,
    Matthias

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