Bug#474607: dependency on gnome-control-center incorrectly pulls in 140 pkgs (130 meg)

[JH]

Thank you, Sven!  I contacted the folks who originally encountered the 
211087 issues, and they raised no objections.

Years ago there were huge transition issues, and tacking on the control 
center dependency to a popular terminal emulation package was an 
expedient way to get a bunch of 1.x libraries upgraded.  Nowadays, with 
even sarge using gnome-terminal 2.8, those issues are ancient history.

Herbert Xu raised some doubts in October 2003 about whether the fix 
adopted (depending on control center) captured exactly the requirements, 
but certainly there were some sticky issues around the very large amount 
of software experiencing a sea-change in assumptions.

Santiago Vila did some minor grumbling in September of 2004:
 > I had the idea that it was possible to install Gnome applications
 > without having to install the entire Gnome suite, but this is too much.

Otherwise folks are mostly resigned to swallowing a big pile of KDE or 
Gnome software and they get on with it.  Certainly that was my 
perspective for years.  But now I would like to improve Debian, by 
allowing new installs to pick up just what they need.  Installing lots 
of unused software is a Bad Thing; in addition to resource issues, there 
is an ongoing burden to upgrade such software as releases come out.

The control center is not truly /necessary/ for the typical user to 
sensibly use the terminal emulator.  Now, some folks will want "the 
Gnome System" installed, and they will be unaffected by the change, 
since they will be pulling in one or more of these packages which quite 
reasonably have a dependency on the control center:
   gnome-core, gnome-session, gnome-desktop-environment, 
gnome-desktop-data, gnome-panel, gnome-bin, gnome-office, etc.

My gnome-terminal 
<http://www.sector6.net/devel/debian/dists/lenny/main/binary-i386/jh-gnome-terminal_2.22.0-1_i386.deb>, 
from `dpkg-buildpackage -D -b -sd -ptrue`, runs with all features very 
happily, although "apt-get install gnome-terminal" would still offer to 
pull in a bunch of libs plus many apps unrelated to terminal emulation:

  The following extra packages will be installed:

  alacarte app-install-data avahi-daemon avahi-utils capplets-data cdrdao
  cupsys cupsys-client cupsys-common deborphan deskbar-applet desktop-base
  desktop-file-utils dialog dvd+rw-tools evolution-data-server
  evolution-data-server-common foomatic-db foomatic-db-engine
  foomatic-filters genisoimage gnome-about gnome-applets gnome-applets-data
  gnome-control-center gnome-desktop-data gnome-media gnome-media-common
  gnome-menus gnome-mount gnome-netstatus-applet gnome-panel 
gnome-panel-data
  gnome-session gnome-system-monitor gnome-terminal-data gnome-user-guide
  gnome-utils gs-esp gstreamer0.10-alsa gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-x metacity metacity-common
  nautilus nautilus-cd-burner nautilus-data python-beagle python-dbus
  python-fpconst python-glade2 python-gmenu python-gnome2
  python-gnome2-desktop python-pyorbit python-soappy samba-common smbclient
  ssl-cert synaptic system-tools-backends wodim xkb-data


I recommend dropping the "Depends: gnome-control-center", urgency==low.


        Cheers,
        JH

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