Bug#891613: steam: Steam update suddenly depends on full nvidia graphic support regardless of equipment

[Ghislain Vaillant]

On Tue, 27 Feb 2018 11:34:06 +0300 Boris Pek <tehnick-8 at yandex.ru>
wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> (I am not a maintainer of this package.)
> 
> > My system uses AMD graphics and while X installs a variety of other
drivers, it
> > is not that demanding of storage. Steam only adds nvidia support,
but with the
> > new edition it *requires* nvidia support whether needed or not.
> 
> It is not true. nvidia packages are only in recommendations of
package steam.
> 
> > apt install steam
> > [...]
> 
> Try something like this:
> sudo apt install -V steam --no-install-recommends
> 
> Best wishes,
> Boris

IMO, they should be demoted to Suggests instead of Recommends.

Steam on Windows does not come bundled with Nvidia drivers, nor does it
explictly recommends to use Nvidia-powered hardware. I don't see how
their inclusion in Recommends is justified by the definition in the
Debian packaging policy.

Besides, having the Nvidia libs listed in Recommends is inconvenient
for users with only AMD or Intel graphics, which is my case personally.
Being involved in Debian packaging, I do know about the presence of the
--no-install-recommends option, but most Debian or Ubuntu users don't. 

Please reconsider.

Best regards,
Ghis