Bug#1071383: gnome-core should not recommend network-manager-gnome

[inasprecali]

Package: gnome-core
Version: 1:43+1
Severity: normal
X-Debbugs-Cc: inasprecali at disroot.org

Dear Maintainer,

to this day, gnome-core still recommends network-manager-gnome.

While this may sound reasonable given the package names, the situation
is misleading: what network-manager-gnome offers boils down to two tools:
nm-applet and nm-connection-editor.

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).

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

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).

However, this raises an important point: as of now, it is technically
possible to install gnome-core without network-manager (the package
which provides the actual NetworkManager subsystem, not the
network-manager-gnome applet!) even without disabling the installation
of "Recommends" packages.

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).

Right now, if gnome-core is installed through the default apt policy of
installing recommended packages by default, network-manager-gnome is
pulled in, which then depends on network-manager, pulling it in as well.

The result is that network-manager is installed when gnome-core is installed
with its "Recommends" packages, but only because of an indirect and (in my
opinion) legacy "Recommends" relationship with network-manager-gnome and not
a proper, direct "Recommends" relationship with network-manager.

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".

Thank you for your time.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.5
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-21-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=it_IT.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=it_IT.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages gnome-core depends on:
ii  adwaita-icon-theme            43-1
ii  at-spi2-core                  2.46.0-5
ii  baobab                        43.0-1
ii  dconf-cli                     0.40.0-4
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend       0.40.0-4
ii  eog                           43.2-1
ii  evince                        43.1-2+b1
ii  evolution-data-server         3.46.4-2
ii  fonts-cantarell               0.303.1-1
ii  gdm3                          43.0-3
ii  gkbd-capplet                  3.28.1-1
ii  glib-networking               2.74.0-4
ii  gnome-backgrounds             43.1-1
ii  gnome-bluetooth-sendto        42.5-3
ii  gnome-calculator              1:43.0.1-2
ii  gnome-characters              43.1-1+deb12u1
ii  gnome-console                 43.0-2
ii  gnome-contacts                43.1-1
ii  gnome-control-center          1:43.6-2~deb12u1
ii  gnome-disk-utility            43.0-1
ii  gnome-font-viewer             43.0-1
ii  gnome-keyring                 42.1-1+b2
ii  gnome-logs                    43.0-1
ii  gnome-menus                   3.36.0-1.1
ii  gnome-online-accounts         3.46.0-1
ii  gnome-session                 43.0-1+deb12u1
ii  gnome-settings-daemon         43.0-4
ii  gnome-shell                   43.9-0+deb12u2
ii  gnome-shell-extensions        43.1-1
ii  gnome-software                43.5-1~deb12u1
ii  gnome-sushi                   43.0-2
ii  gnome-system-monitor          42.0-2
ii  gnome-text-editor             43.2-1
ii  gnome-themes-extra            3.28-2
ii  gnome-user-docs               43.0-2
ii  gnome-user-share              43.0-1
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas     43.0-1
ii  gstreamer1.0-packagekit       1.2.6-5
ii  gstreamer1.0-plugins-base     1.22.0-3+deb12u1
ii  gstreamer1.0-plugins-good     1.22.0-5+deb12u1
ii  gvfs-backends                 1.50.3-1
ii  gvfs-fuse                     1.50.3-1
ii  libatk-adaptor                2.46.0-5
ii  libcanberra-pulse             0.30-10
ii  libglib2.0-bin                2.74.6-2+deb12u2
ii  libpam-gnome-keyring          42.1-1+b2
ii  libproxy1-plugin-gsettings    0.4.18-1.2
ii  libproxy1-plugin-webkit       0.4.18-1.2
ii  librsvg2-common               2.54.7+dfsg-1~deb12u1
ii  nautilus                      43.2-1
ii  pipewire-audio                0.3.65-3+deb12u1
ii  sound-theme-freedesktop       0.8-2
ii  system-config-printer-common  1.5.18-1
ii  system-config-printer-udev    1.5.18-1
ii  totem                         43.0-2
ii  tracker                       3.4.2-1
ii  xdg-desktop-portal-gnome      43.1-2
ii  yelp                          42.2-1
ii  zenity                        3.44.0-1

Versions of packages gnome-core recommends:
ii  chromium [gnome-www-browser]     125.0.6422.60-1~deb12u1
ii  firefox-esr [gnome-www-browser]  115.11.0esr-1~deb12u1
pn  libproxy1-plugin-networkmanager  <none>
pn  low-memory-monitor               <none>
pn  network-manager-gnome            <none>

Versions of packages gnome-core suggests:
pn  gnome  <none>

-- no debconf information