Installing xfe on base Debian

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 03:39:19PM -0400, Dave Germiquet wrote:
> Hey Giles,
> 
> Does the same thing happen with apt-get? Doesn't aptitude offer more choices
> than apt-get usually?
> 
> Just wondering I rarely use aptitude and usually use apt-get.
> 
> On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 3:23 PM, Giles Orr <gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> 
> > On Sunday I was helping a friend install a new, completely
> > stripped-down Debian testing system.  After we added X and fluxbox, he
> > wanted a file manager and chose what we both thought was a relatively
> > light-weight one, xfe.  Here's how it went:
> >
> > root at thinkpad:~# aptitude install xfe
> > The following NEW packages will be installed:
> >  audacious{a} audacious-plugins{a} dbus-x11{a} desktop-file-utils{a}
> >  esound-clients{a} esound-common{a} exiftran{a} exiv2{a} gconf2{a}
> >  gconf2-common{a} geeqie{a} geeqie-common{a} gqview{a}
> >  gtk2-engines-pixbuf{a} imagemagick{a} libasyncns0{a} libaudclient2{a}
> >  libaudcore1{a} libaudid3tag2{a} libaudiofile0{a} libavcodec52{a}
> >  libavformat52{a} libavutil49{a} libbinio1ldbl{a} libcanberra-gtk-module{a}
> >  libcanberra-gtk0{a} libcanberra0{a} libcddb2{a} libcdio-cdda0{a}
> >  libcdio10{a} libcdt4{a} libcue1{a} libdbus-glib-1-2{a}
> >  libdirac-encoder0{a} libdirectfb-1.2-9{a} libdjvulibre-text{a}
> >  libdjvulibre21{a} libesd0{a} libexif12{a} libexiv2-9{a} libfaad2{a}
> >  libflac8{a} libfluidsynth1{a} libfox-1.6-0{a} libgconf2-4{a}
> >  libgd2-noxpm{a} libglu1-mesa{a} libgraph4{a} libgsm1{a}
> >  libgtkimageview0{a} libgvc5{a} libidl0{a} libilmbase6{a}
> >  libjack-jackd2-0{a} liblash2{a} liblircclient0{a} liblqr-1-0{a}
> >  libltdl7{a} libmad0{a} libmagickcore3{a} libmagickcore3-extra{a}
> >  libmagickwand3{a} libmcs1{a} libmms0{a} libmowgli1{a} libmtp8{a}
> >  libneon27-gnutls{a} libnetpbm10{a} libnotify1{a} libogg0{a} libopenexr6{a}
> >  liborbit2{a} liborc-0.4-0{a} libpathplan4{a} libpulse0{a}
> >  libresid-builder0c2a{a} librsvg2-common{a} libsamplerate0{a}
> >  libschroedinger-1.0-0{a} libsdl1.2debian{a} libsdl1.2debian-alsa{a}
> >  libshout3{a} libsidplay2{a} libsndfile1{a} libspeex1{a} libsvga1{a}
> >  libtdb1{a} libtheora0{a} libts-0.0-0{a} libvorbis0a{a} libvorbisenc2{a}
> >  libvorbisfile3{a} libwavpack1{a} libwmf0.2-7{a} libwnck-common{a}
> >  libwnck22{a} libxdot4{a} libxres1{a} netpbm{a} notification-daemon{a}
> >  tsconf{a} ufraw{a} ufraw-batch{a} unzip{a} xfe xfe-i18n{a} xfe-themes{a}
> >  zenity{a}
> > 0 packages upgraded, 108 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> > Need to get 36.6MB of archives. After unpacking 103MB will be used.
> > Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] n
> >
> > Excuse me?  Audacious??  A year ago Debian users were smart enough to
> > install audacious and geeqie when we needed them: now we're too
> > stupid?  And I'm not even going to discuss the other things it claims
> > to depend on.
> >
> > On the xfe sourceforge download page there's a i386 deb package that
> > had only two requirements: "libglu1-mesa 7.7.1-4 [213kB]" and
> > "libfox-1.6-0 1.6.37-1 [1,212kB]".
> >
> > That's truly spectacular dependency bloat.  What exactly has happened
> > to Debian?  It used to be that Ubuntu was based on Debian, and those
> > who wanted more control chose Debian.  Now it seems that Debian is
> > trying to be Ubuntu?  "Don't think, we'll do it for you."
> >
> > While this may strike some as flame-bait, it's actually a desperate
> > plea for explanation-and-understanding from a long-time Debian user
> > who thinks his distro is going insane.

At some point, installing 'recommended' packages became default.  In the
past only requires packages were installed.  This can be changed in the
configuration of apt though.  aptitude has it's own configuration as
well for similar controls (including installing suggested packages if
so desired).

-- 
Len Sorensen
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