Bug#1071383: gnome-core should recommend network-manager instead of network-manager-gnome

[Simon McVittie]

Control: retitle -1 gnome-core should recommend network-manager instead of network-manager-gnome

On Sat, 18 May 2024 at 11:29:32 +0200, inasprecali wrote:
> Now, nm-applet is, ironically, useless in a vanilla GNOME desktop with no
> extensions, since GNOME hasn't had tray icon support in quite a few years,
> including the gnome-core parckage in bookworm (1:43+1).

I agree nm-applet is useless on a pure GNOME system.

> The other tool, nm-connection-editor, merely duplicates functionality
> that is already present in the built-in gnome-control-center.

It isn't 100% duplication: I think nm-connection-editor exposes some
more advanced features that are not in gnome-control-center (similar to
the difference between gnome-control-center and gnome-tweaks). But that
seems more like something for the "big" gnome metapackage, or a Suggests,
or both.

> For these reasons, I feel that network-manager-gnome by itself is largely
> unnecessary nowadays when running a GNOME desktop and should not be
> installed by default (not even recommneded).

I would tend to agree. It could be demoted to Suggests, which is not
installed by default.

> However, this raises an important point: as of now, it is technically
> possible to install gnome-core without network-manager
...
> In my opinion, this is undesirable for most people, since tihs would leave you
> with no way to manage connections graphically from gnome-control-center
> (unless of course there are other tools installed).

Agreed, gnome-core should have a direct or indirect Recommends on NM
(Depends is too strong, Suggests is too weak). At the moment it's indirect,
but I agree that it would be better to make it direct.

> To conclude, I propose the following dependency changes (which as of now
> still persist in the gnome-core package included in Sid).
> 
> 1. gnome-core should not recommend network-manager-gnome.  Remove it from
>    "Recommends".
> 1. gnome-core *should* recommend network-manager.  Include it in
>    "Recommends".

I think that's appropriate. I would also be inclined to add
gnome Suggests: network-manager-gnome (which would mean it is not installed
by default, but there is a breadcrumb trail leading to it).

Other GNOME team members: any objections?

    smcv